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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.

Make a worksheet

Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

Words on the sheet
468
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: content · lean · cold · land · shower · perch · face · branch

  1. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  9. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  10. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  11. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  19. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  20. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.

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

Answer key

  1. lean — to bend
  2. content — happy
  3. land — a country
  4. lean — thin
  5. cold — not warm
  6. cold — an illness
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. branch — of a tree
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. face — to confront
  11. branch — a division
  12. content — the amount
  13. shower — to wash
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. shower — rain
  16. face — to point toward
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. face — part of the head
  19. perch — the fish
  20. branch — of a bank
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. land — ground
  23. land — to come down
  24. lean — to rest against

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