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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. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  2. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  5. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  6. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  15. There's no middle ________________.
  16. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  22. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. fork — a garden tool
  2. fork — to eat with
  3. cold — not warm
  4. fork — in a road
  5. stem — a stem cell
  6. dip — to sink
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. stem — of a plant
  10. chest — a box
  11. straw — dry grass
  12. chest — of your body
  13. bat — the animal
  14. dip — a sauce
  15. ground — a position
  16. dip — to dunk
  17. chest — of your body
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. ground — crushed
  20. ground — the earth
  21. stem — to come from
  22. straw — to clutch at straws
  23. cold — an illness
  24. straw — a straw man

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