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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: file · kid · cold · swing · leaves · branch · capital · row

  1. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  2. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  3. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  4. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  10. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  11. David sat on the ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  15. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a tool
  2. leaves — lets stay
  3. leaves — of a tree
  4. branch — of a tree
  5. capital — a city
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. leaves — to go away
  10. row — a line
  11. swing — to play on
  12. cold — an illness
  13. file — a line of people
  14. branch — a division
  15. branch — of a bank
  16. row — to paddle
  17. swing — in golf
  18. kid — to tease
  19. swing — music
  20. file — a document
  21. cold — not warm
  22. capital — money
  23. kid — child
  24. capital — a big letter

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