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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. The water is too ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  15. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  16. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  17. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  21. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  22. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  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. cold — not warm
  3. cold — an illness
  4. prune — to trim
  5. degree — from a university
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. degree — temperature
  9. mark — to pay attention
  10. wound — an injury
  11. snap — to snap out of it
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. degree — an amount
  14. prune — the fruit
  15. snap — to click
  16. wound — an injury
  17. fork — a garden tool
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. mark — a trace
  21. prune — to trim
  22. mark — a grade
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  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