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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. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  2. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  3. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  4. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  5. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  8. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  9. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  12. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  13. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  14. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  15. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. We're on a ________________ here.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  20. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — of ice
  2. cap — a hat
  3. fork — a garden tool
  4. pitch — completely
  5. file — a document
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. cap — a lid
  8. stick — a piece of wood
  9. pitch — a sales talk
  10. file — a line of people
  11. stick — a piece of wood
  12. fork — to eat with
  13. roll — a cake
  14. hand — help
  15. stick — to attach or keep to
  16. hand — in cards
  17. roll — on a roll
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. pitch — a sports field
  20. roll — a list
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. bat — the animal
  23. fork — in a road
  24. file — a tool

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