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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: clip · branch · plane · cell · content · hand · court · wind

  1. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  4. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  5. He was locked up in a ________________.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  9. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. The ball is in your ________________.
  14. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. The ________________ took off on time.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. hand — help
  3. plane — a tool
  4. branch — of a bank
  5. cell — in a prison
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. content — happy
  8. hand — in cards
  9. plane — in geometry
  10. cell — a phone
  11. branch — of a tree
  12. clip — to cut
  13. court — for sport
  14. branch — a division
  15. wind — moving air
  16. clip — a video
  17. court — of law
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. cell — in biology
  20. court — of a king
  21. plane — an aircraft
  22. clip — for paper
  23. wind — moving air
  24. wind — to turn a key

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