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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: fork · bark · pitcher · cold · stem · court · bulb · straw

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  3. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  4. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  5. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  6. The light ________________ burned out.
  7. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. He is an ace ________________.
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. I've got to change the light ________________.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  23. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. fork — to eat with
  3. bark — of a tree
  4. bark — a dog's sound
  5. stem — to come from
  6. bulb — for light
  7. pitcher — a jug
  8. cold — not warm
  9. fork — a garden tool
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. pitcher — in baseball
  12. court — of law
  13. court — of a king
  14. bulb — of a plant
  15. court — for sport
  16. bulb — for light
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. bark — to shout
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. stem — a stem cell
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. pitcher — a jug
  23. stem — of a plant
  24. fork — in a road

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