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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. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  2. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  3. He is an ace ________________.
  4. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  5. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  10. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. Have you met the new head ________________?
  14. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  15. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  22. David sat on the ________________.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  24. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?

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

Answer key

  1. fork — a garden tool
  2. bark — of a tree
  3. pitcher — in baseball
  4. swing — in golf
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. leaves — of a tree
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. leaves — to go away
  10. fork — in a road
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. file — a document
  13. coach — a trainer
  14. leaves — lets stay
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. file — a tool
  17. cold — not warm
  18. cold — an illness
  19. file — a line of people
  20. swing — music
  21. fork — to eat with
  22. swing — to play on
  23. bark — to shout
  24. coach — pulled by horses

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