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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: game · perch · pitcher · branch · bat · tear · net · wound

  1. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  7. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  10. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  13. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  14. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. He is an ace ________________.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  19. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  23. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  24. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. wound — an injury
  3. branch — of a tree
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. bat — the animal
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. tear — from crying
  8. game — wild animals
  9. tear — from crying
  10. net — after costs
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. wound — past of 'wind'
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. branch — a division
  15. game — a match
  16. pitcher — in baseball
  17. net — for catching
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. net — in sport
  20. wound — an injury
  21. tear — to rip
  22. branch — of a bank
  23. game — a kind of play
  24. perch — the fish

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