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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. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  2. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  3. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  9. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  10. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  13. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  14. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  15. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  16. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. This piece is in a major ________________.
  23. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. key — for a lock
  2. bass — low music
  3. bass — the fish
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. wound — an injury
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. fork — to eat with
  9. key — the most important part
  10. stem — a stem cell
  11. wound — an injury
  12. bass — the instrument
  13. fork — in a road
  14. stem — of a plant
  15. row — a line
  16. fork — a garden tool
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. bat — the animal
  19. row — to paddle
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. key — in music
  23. stem — to come from
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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