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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 116 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. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  9. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  10. The ________________ market has crashed.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  13. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  14. You don't need to ________________ round.
  15. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. We're almost out of ________________.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fork — to eat with
  2. fork — in a road
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. cold — an illness
  5. spring — of water
  6. march — the month
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. pop — music
  9. fork — a garden tool
  10. stock — shares
  11. bat — the animal
  12. march — the month
  13. march — music
  14. pop — to visit
  15. stock — a soup base
  16. tear — from crying
  17. tear — to rip
  18. spring — the season
  19. tear — from crying
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. pop — soda
  22. spring — a coil
  23. stock — goods
  24. cold — not warm

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