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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 116 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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  3. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  4. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  5. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  6. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  7. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  8. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  9. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. Don't do anything ________________.
  14. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  17. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  20. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. fork — to eat with
  3. vault — in gymnastics
  4. trunk — of an elephant
  5. trunk — of a tree
  6. fork — a garden tool
  7. chair — a professorship
  8. trunk — of a car
  9. game — wild animals
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. rash — on the skin
  12. cold — not warm
  13. rash — hasty
  14. vault — an arched ceiling
  15. cold — an illness
  16. snap — to speak sharply
  17. rash — a series
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. vault — a safe
  20. snap — to snap out of it
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. game — a match
  23. chair — a leader
  24. fork — in a road

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