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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: march · branch · cold · pop · fan · mouse · clip · saw

  1. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. She's very handy with a ________________.
  8. He works in a ________________ mill.
  9. You don't need to ________________ round.
  10. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  15. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  16. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  17. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  18. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  21. We're almost out of ________________.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  24. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. clip — for paper
  3. march — music
  4. pop — music
  5. cold — not warm
  6. clip — a video
  7. saw — the tool
  8. saw — the tool
  9. pop — to visit
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. march — the month
  12. mouse — for a computer
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. fan — to cool the air
  15. branch — of a tree
  16. fan — a supporter
  17. mouse — the animal
  18. branch — a division
  19. cold — an illness
  20. mouse — the animal
  21. pop — soda
  22. clip — to cut
  23. saw — past of 'see'
  24. branch — of a bank

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