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

  1. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  2. Have you met the new head ________________?
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  15. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  16. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  19. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  22. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. fork — a garden tool
  2. coach — a trainer
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. coach — pulled by horses
  5. chest — of your body
  6. deal — to handle
  7. chest — of your body
  8. file — a line of people
  9. clip — for paper
  10. file — a tool
  11. chest — a box
  12. game — a match
  13. land — to come down
  14. fork — in a road
  15. fork — to eat with
  16. deal — a big deal
  17. game — wild animals
  18. deal — an agreement
  19. clip — a video
  20. clip — to cut
  21. coach — a trainer
  22. land — ground
  23. file — a document
  24. land — a country

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