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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. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  2. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  10. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  11. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  12. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  13. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  14. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  19. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  20. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. What was your ________________ profit last year?

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

Answer key

  1. fork — a garden tool
  2. net — in sport
  3. file — a document
  4. cold — not warm
  5. fork — in a road
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. chair — a professorship
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. can — to be able to
  10. can — a tin
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. perch — the fish
  13. can — a tin
  14. chair — a leader
  15. file — a tool
  16. kid — to tease
  17. net — for catching
  18. chair — to sit on
  19. fork — to eat with
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. cold — an illness
  22. kid — child
  23. file — a line of people
  24. net — after costs

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