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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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Word bank
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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: hand · fork · field · file · straw · cold · racket · bark

  1. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  2. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  16. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  23. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  24. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.

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

Answer key

  1. bark — of a tree
  2. fork — a garden tool
  3. file — a tool
  4. file — a document
  5. field — a subject
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. fork — in a road
  8. cold — not warm
  9. hand — in cards
  10. racket — for tennis
  11. field — for sport
  12. file — a line of people
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. bark — to shout
  15. bark — a dog's sound
  16. racket — a loud noise
  17. field — farmland
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. hand — help
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. cold — an illness
  22. fork — to eat with
  23. straw — dry grass
  24. racket — for tennis

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