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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: hand · mine · game · stem · chest · bat · cabinet · branch

  1. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  13. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  17. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  22. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  23. What do you think of the new ________________?
  24. Biology is a ________________ of science.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. branch — of a bank
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. chest — a box
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. chest — of your body
  8. hand — in cards
  9. hand — help
  10. bat — the animal
  11. game — wild animals
  12. stem — to come from
  13. stem — a stem cell
  14. mine — for digging
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. cabinet — ministers
  17. branch — of a tree
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. stem — of a plant
  20. game — a match
  21. mine — belonging to me
  22. cabinet — a cupboard
  23. cabinet — ministers
  24. branch — a division

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