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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 120 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: cold · mine · game · saw · branch · straw · kid · fall

  1. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  2. She's very handy with a ________________.
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. He works in a ________________ mill.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  21. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  22. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  23. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  24. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.

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

Answer key

  1. branch — of a tree
  2. saw — the tool
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. cold — an illness
  6. game — wild animals
  7. fall — the season
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. kid — to tease
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. straw — dry grass
  12. game — a match
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. saw — the tool
  16. kid — child
  17. cold — not warm
  18. mine — for digging
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. branch — of a bank
  21. fall — to drop
  22. branch — a division
  23. saw — past of 'see'
  24. fall — to drop

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