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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: march · fall · fork · snap · pop · wound · court · last

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. We're almost out of ________________.
  3. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  4. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  5. You don't need to ________________ round.
  6. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  7. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  8. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  12. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  13. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  14. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  20. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  21. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  22. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  23. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. pop — soda
  3. fall — to drop
  4. fall — to drop
  5. pop — to visit
  6. snap — to snap out of it
  7. fall — the season
  8. snap — to speak sharply
  9. wound — an injury
  10. last — to go on
  11. snap — to click
  12. fork — to eat with
  13. last — finally
  14. pop — music
  15. march — the month
  16. fork — in a road
  17. court — of law
  18. court — for sport
  19. wound — an injury
  20. march — the month
  21. march — music
  22. court — of a king
  23. fork — a garden tool
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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