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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: shower · bat · branch · root · spring · board · march · court

  1. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  5. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  6. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  15. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  16. The ball is in your ________________.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. board — a flat piece
  3. spring — of water
  4. board — a committee
  5. root — of a word
  6. board — to get on
  7. bat — the animal
  8. court — of a king
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. root — the cause
  11. spring — the season
  12. shower — to wash
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. branch — of a tree
  15. branch — a division
  16. court — for sport
  17. march — the month
  18. spring — a coil
  19. root — of a plant
  20. march — music
  21. march — the month
  22. court — of law
  23. shower — rain
  24. branch — of a bank

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