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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. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  2. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  3. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  4. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  5. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  6. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  11. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  14. The ________________ took off on time.
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. Did you ________________ the meat?
  19. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  20. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  21. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  22. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. I got dealt a bad ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fall — to drop
  2. fork — a garden tool
  3. race — the arms race
  4. season — in sport
  5. fall — the season
  6. plane — a tool
  7. capital — a city
  8. trunk — of an elephant
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. trunk — of a car
  11. fork — to eat with
  12. hand — help
  13. fall — to drop
  14. plane — an aircraft
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. plane — in geometry
  17. capital — money
  18. season — to add flavour
  19. race — humankind
  20. fork — in a road
  21. season — of the year
  22. race — a contest
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. hand — in cards

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