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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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. False peace will not ________________.
  3. Have you found your soul ________________?
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  10. Did you ________________ the meat?
  11. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  12. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  13. The ________________ market has crashed.
  14. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  19. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. last — to go on
  3. mate — a partner
  4. file — a document
  5. fork — a garden tool
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. season — of the year
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. fork — in a road
  10. season — to add flavour
  11. stock — goods
  12. branch — of a bank
  13. stock — shares
  14. fork — to eat with
  15. file — a line of people
  16. branch — a division
  17. last — finally
  18. mate — a friend
  19. mate — to breed
  20. kid — to tease
  21. season — in sport
  22. file — a tool
  23. kid — child
  24. branch — 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