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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. When are we going to ________________?
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  4. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  5. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  16. Have you met the new head ________________?
  17. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  20. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  21. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  22. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. land — to come down
  2. march — the month
  3. fork — to eat with
  4. club — for golf
  5. fork — a garden tool
  6. shower — to wash
  7. shower — rain
  8. march — music
  9. spring — a coil
  10. land — ground
  11. march — the month
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. spring — of water
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. coach — pulled by horses
  18. spring — the season
  19. wind — moving air
  20. club — a group
  21. fork — in a road
  22. club — for dancing
  23. land — a country
  24. wind — moving air

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