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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: cold · spring · staff · chest · branch · prune · tear · pitch

  1. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  10. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  11. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  21. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  24. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.

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

Answer key

  1. tear — from crying
  2. chest — a box
  3. prune — to trim
  4. pitch — a sports field
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. spring — the season
  7. branch — of a bank
  8. cold — not warm
  9. staff — a stick
  10. branch — of a tree
  11. tear — from crying
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. branch — a division
  14. spring — a coil
  15. tear — to rip
  16. chest — of your body
  17. staff — employees
  18. cold — an illness
  19. spring — of water
  20. pitch — completely
  21. staff — employees
  22. chest — of your body
  23. prune — to trim
  24. pitch — a sales talk

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