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

Word bank: fork · stem · cold · cell · row · bat

  1. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  4. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  16. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fork — to eat with
  2. cold — not warm
  3. row — to paddle
  4. stem — to come from
  5. bat — the animal
  6. row — a line
  7. cold — an illness
  8. fork — in a road
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. cell — a phone
  11. stem — of a plant
  12. cell — in biology
  13. stem — a stem cell
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. fork — a garden tool
  16. row — a quarrel
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. cell — in a prison

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