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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: perch · spring · lie · drill · fall · ground · branch · cold

  1. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  4. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  5. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  6. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  7. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  10. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  14. There's no middle ________________.
  15. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  16. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  17. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  18. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  19. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  22. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  23. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — crushed
  2. cold — an illness
  3. perch — for a bird
  4. drill — a practice
  5. fall — the season
  6. drill — the tool
  7. branch — of a tree
  8. spring — a coil
  9. lie — to recline
  10. drill — army training
  11. spring — the season
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. fall — to drop
  14. ground — a position
  15. branch — a division
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. ground — the earth
  18. perch — the fish
  19. branch — of a bank
  20. spring — of water
  21. lie — an untruth
  22. fall — to drop
  23. lie — an untruth
  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