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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. Have you met the new head ________________?
  2. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  3. Don't do anything ________________.
  4. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  5. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  6. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  7. False peace will not ________________.
  8. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  11. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  12. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  13. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  17. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  18. How do you ________________ your surname?
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  23. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — a trainer
  2. spell — magic
  3. rash — hasty
  4. last — final
  5. fork — a garden tool
  6. rash — a series
  7. last — to go on
  8. last — finally
  9. cold — not warm
  10. fork — in a road
  11. snap — to speak sharply
  12. coach — pulled by horses
  13. fork — to eat with
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. file — a line of people
  16. snap — to snap out of it
  17. coach — a trainer
  18. spell — letters
  19. file — a tool
  20. spell — a short time
  21. cold — an illness
  22. rash — on the skin
  23. snap — to click
  24. file — a document

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