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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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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: shower · sharp · saw · staff · cold · branch · kick · bat

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  4. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  5. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  6. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  9. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  12. She's very handy with a ________________.
  13. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  16. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  17. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  18. It's one o'clock ________________.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  24. He works in a ________________ mill.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. bat — the animal
  3. staff — employees
  4. kick — with a leg
  5. sharp — clever
  6. staff — a stick
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. shower — a meteor shower
  9. branch — of a bank
  10. shower — to wash
  11. kick — a thrill
  12. saw — the tool
  13. sharp — with an edge
  14. cold — not warm
  15. branch — of a tree
  16. kick — in football
  17. saw — past of 'see'
  18. sharp — exactly
  19. shower — rain
  20. staff — employees
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. cold — an illness
  23. branch — a division
  24. saw — the tool

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