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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. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  2. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  5. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  6. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  7. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  8. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  15. How do you ________________ your surname?
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  18. The ________________ market has crashed.
  19. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  20. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  21. My father caught me by the ________________.
  22. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  23. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  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. stock — goods
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. scale — in music
  5. fork — a garden tool
  6. arm — part of the body
  7. spell — magic
  8. cap — a hat
  9. cold — an illness
  10. spring — of water
  11. scale — size or range
  12. cold — not warm
  13. spring — the season
  14. spell — a short time
  15. spell — letters
  16. spring — a coil
  17. cap — of ice
  18. stock — shares
  19. arm — a part of something
  20. scale — for weighing
  21. arm — part of the body
  22. stock — a soup base
  23. cap — a lid
  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