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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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  12. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  13. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  14. The King held a masked ________________.
  15. The ________________ took off on time.
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  19. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  24. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fork — a garden tool
  2. band — a ring
  3. tear — from crying
  4. file — a document
  5. race — the arms race
  6. file — a tool
  7. ball — a round shape
  8. degree — temperature
  9. plane — a tool
  10. file — a line of people
  11. band — a rubber band
  12. ball — a great time
  13. band — a music group
  14. ball — a dance
  15. plane — an aircraft
  16. tear — from crying
  17. tear — to rip
  18. fork — in a road
  19. fork — to eat with
  20. degree — from a university
  21. race — humankind
  22. degree — an amount
  23. race — a contest
  24. plane — in geometry

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