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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. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  3. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  4. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  5. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  6. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. David sat on the ________________.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. Have you settled on a ________________?
  23. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  24. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. lash — an eyelash
  3. fork — in a road
  4. row — to paddle
  5. fork — a garden tool
  6. date — the fruit
  7. bat — the animal
  8. swing — in golf
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. swing — to play on
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. cold — an illness
  13. lash — to lash out
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. hand — help
  18. fork — to eat with
  19. cold — not warm
  20. swing — music
  21. hand — in cards
  22. date — on the calendar
  23. date — on the calendar
  24. lash — a whip stroke

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