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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: sharp · kid · cap · prune · cold · stem · branch · hand

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  6. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  7. It's one o'clock ________________.
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  12. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  13. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  14. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  15. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. The polar ice ________________ is melting.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. stem — to come from
  3. cold — not warm
  4. cold — an illness
  5. branch — of a bank
  6. sharp — clever
  7. sharp — exactly
  8. prune — to trim
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. hand — help
  11. branch — a division
  12. cap — a lid
  13. branch — of a tree
  14. prune — the fruit
  15. sharp — with an edge
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. prune — to trim
  18. stem — of a plant
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. hand — in cards
  21. cap — a hat
  22. kid — child
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. cap — of ice

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