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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: bat · kid · hand · hide · march · content · prune · branch

  1. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  5. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. kid — to tease
  3. march — music
  4. prune — to trim
  5. branch — a division
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. hide — to keep secret
  8. prune — to trim
  9. prune — the fruit
  10. content — the amount
  11. march — the month
  12. kid — child
  13. hand — help
  14. branch — of a tree
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. hide — animal skin
  17. bat — the animal
  18. hide — to keep secret
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. branch — of a bank
  22. hand — in cards
  23. content — happy
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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