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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. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  2. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  6. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  7. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  8. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  9. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  10. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  11. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  15. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. This piece is in a major ________________.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  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. fork — to eat with
  2. fork — a garden tool
  3. cold — not warm
  4. spell — letters
  5. bark — to shout
  6. stock — a soup base
  7. wake — a trail
  8. stock — goods
  9. bark — of a tree
  10. wake — to stop sleeping
  11. wake — before a funeral
  12. stock — shares
  13. field — a subject
  14. spell — magic
  15. key — for a lock
  16. cold — an illness
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. spell — a short time
  20. field — farmland
  21. key — in music
  22. field — for sport
  23. key — the most important part
  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