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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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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: tear · wave · cold · snap · march · wound · content · branch

  1. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  3. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  18. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  19. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  20. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. content — videos and posts
  3. wave — of the sea
  4. cold — an illness
  5. wave — with your hand
  6. tear — from crying
  7. branch — of a bank
  8. march — music
  9. march — the month
  10. tear — from crying
  11. branch — a division
  12. content — the amount
  13. branch — of a tree
  14. cold — not warm
  15. content — happy
  16. wound — an injury
  17. snap — to snap out of it
  18. wound — past of 'wind'
  19. snap — to click
  20. snap — to speak sharply
  21. tear — to rip
  22. wave — a sudden rise
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. march — the month

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