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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: bay · shower · spell · branch · spring · chest · rash · roll

  1. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  6. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. Don't do anything ________________.
  10. My mare is ________________ in color.
  11. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  12. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  13. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  19. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  20. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. We're on a ________________ here.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. rash — a series
  2. spell — letters
  3. shower — to wash
  4. chest — of your body
  5. spell — magic
  6. branch — of a bank
  7. shower — rain
  8. spring — of water
  9. rash — hasty
  10. bay — a horse colour
  11. rash — on the skin
  12. spell — a short time
  13. bay — a part of the sea
  14. spring — a coil
  15. branch — of a tree
  16. chest — a box
  17. spring — the season
  18. roll — a cake
  19. bay — to keep at bay
  20. roll — a list
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. branch — a division
  23. chest — of your body
  24. roll — on a roll

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com