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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: wind · stem · cold · dip · snap · tube · hand · fork

  1. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  9. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  10. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  11. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  14. I'll be taking the ________________.
  15. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  16. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.

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

Answer key

  1. fork — a garden tool
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. wind — moving air
  4. snap — to speak sharply
  5. hand — help
  6. hand — in cards
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. dip — to sink
  9. dip — to dunk
  10. stem — to come from
  11. tube — a container
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. dip — a sauce
  14. tube — the underground
  15. stem — a stem cell
  16. fork — to eat with
  17. cold — an illness
  18. fork — in a road
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. wind — moving air
  21. stem — of a plant
  22. cold — not warm
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. snap — to click

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