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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 · swing · cold · bark · field · lie · kid · saw

  1. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  4. He works in a ________________ mill.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. She's very handy with a ________________.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. David sat on the ________________.
  18. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  19. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  22. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  24. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.

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

Answer key

  1. fork — a garden tool
  2. cold — an illness
  3. lie — an untruth
  4. saw — the tool
  5. kid — child
  6. saw — past of 'see'
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. saw — the tool
  9. field — farmland
  10. swing — in golf
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. bark — of a tree
  14. field — a subject
  15. lie — to recline
  16. kid — to tease
  17. swing — to play on
  18. fork — in a road
  19. field — for sport
  20. cold — not warm
  21. fork — to eat with
  22. lie — an untruth
  23. bark — to shout
  24. swing — music

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