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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: fork · cell · field · wind · stock · court

  1. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. He was locked up in a ________________.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. The ________________ market has crashed.
  11. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  14. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  15. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  16. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. 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. fork — to eat with
  2. court — of law
  3. field — a subject
  4. field — farmland
  5. court — for sport
  6. court — of a king
  7. wind — moving air
  8. cell — in a prison
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. stock — shares
  11. fork — a garden tool
  12. field — for sport
  13. cell — a phone
  14. stock — goods
  15. stock — a soup base
  16. fork — in a road
  17. cell — in biology
  18. 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