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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 polar ice ________________ is melting.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  16. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  22. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  23. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  24. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.

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

Answer key

  1. fork — to eat with
  2. cap — of ice
  3. cold — not warm
  4. prune — to trim
  5. capital — a city
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. spring — the season
  9. row — to paddle
  10. cold — an illness
  11. spring — of water
  12. row — a line
  13. wind — moving air
  14. spring — a coil
  15. cap — a lid
  16. fork — in a road
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. capital — money
  19. capital — a big letter
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. cap — a hat
  22. fork — a garden tool
  23. wind — moving air
  24. prune — to trim

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