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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. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  2. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  8. That must've been a ________________.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  14. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  15. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. We had a fire ________________ at school today.

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

Answer key

  1. fork — a garden tool
  2. degree — temperature
  3. file — a tool
  4. land — to come down
  5. fork — to eat with
  6. spring — a coil
  7. drill — army training
  8. rush — a thrill
  9. land — ground
  10. file — a document
  11. degree — an amount
  12. degree — from a university
  13. rush — hurry
  14. lie — an untruth
  15. rush — to hurry
  16. drill — the tool
  17. file — a line of people
  18. lie — an untruth
  19. spring — of water
  20. fork — in a road
  21. land — a country
  22. lie — to recline
  23. spring — the season
  24. drill — a practice

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