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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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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 · key · deal · coach · cold · chest · degree · fork

  1. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  4. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. Have you met the new head ________________?
  7. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  12. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  13. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. This piece is in a major ________________.
  18. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  19. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  22. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.

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

Answer key

  1. fork — a garden tool
  2. hand — in cards
  3. key — for a lock
  4. deal — a big deal
  5. hand — help
  6. coach — a trainer
  7. fork — to eat with
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. chest — a box
  10. degree — from a university
  11. deal — an agreement
  12. fork — in a road
  13. degree — an amount
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. cold — an illness
  16. cold — not warm
  17. key — in music
  18. coach — a trainer
  19. deal — to handle
  20. degree — temperature
  21. key — the most important part
  22. coach — pulled by horses
  23. chest — of your body
  24. chest — of your body

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