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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. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  2. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  3. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  6. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  9. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  10. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  11. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  16. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  17. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  18. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. This looks like a gunshot ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fork — to eat with
  2. wound — past of 'wind'
  3. kick — a thrill
  4. shower — rain
  5. kick — in football
  6. rule — a law
  7. file — a tool
  8. fork — in a road
  9. kick — with a leg
  10. content — videos and posts
  11. shower — a meteor shower
  12. wound — an injury
  13. rule — government
  14. race — a contest
  15. race — the arms race
  16. fork — a garden tool
  17. content — the amount
  18. content — happy
  19. file — a line of people
  20. rule — to rule out
  21. shower — to wash
  22. file — a document
  23. race — humankind
  24. wound — an injury

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