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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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  5. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  8. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  21. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. pitcher — a jug
  3. bat — the animal
  4. wake — before a funeral
  5. wake — a trail
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. bear — to put up with
  8. fork — a garden tool
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. field — a subject
  11. bear — the animal
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. fork — in a road
  14. field — farmland
  15. hand — in cards
  16. wake — to stop sleeping
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. bear — the animal
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. fork — to eat with
  22. field — for sport
  23. cold — an illness
  24. cold — not warm

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