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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: fan · ball · cue · game · cold · branch · bark · band

  1. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  7. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  8. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  9. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  10. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  11. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. That was a fun ________________.
  20. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  21. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  22. The King held a masked ________________.
  23. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. game — wild animals
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. cold — an illness
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. cue — a signal
  8. game — a kind of play
  9. branch — of a bank
  10. cue — a hint
  11. ball — a round shape
  12. bark — to shout
  13. band — a ring
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. cue — for pool
  16. band — a music group
  17. ball — a great time
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. game — a match
  20. bark — a dog's sound
  21. branch — a division
  22. ball — a dance
  23. branch — of a tree
  24. cold — not warm

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