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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 120 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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. That was ________________ to happen.
  2. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  7. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  8. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  9. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  12. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.

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

Answer key

  1. bound — certain
  2. fork — to eat with
  3. bat — the animal
  4. trunk — of a car
  5. file — a tool
  6. fork — in a road
  7. fork — a garden tool
  8. bound — tied together
  9. bound — obliged
  10. court — for sport
  11. trunk — of an elephant
  12. court — of a king
  13. file — a line of people
  14. court — of law
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. file — a document
  18. trunk — of a tree

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