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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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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 · face · game · wind · hand · prune · date · wake

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  3. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  6. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  7. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  13. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  16. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  19. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  22. That was a fun ________________.
  23. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  24. Have you settled on a ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. wake — before a funeral
  3. prune — to trim
  4. wind — moving air
  5. fork — to eat with
  6. face — to point toward
  7. face — part of the head
  8. game — wild animals
  9. fork — a garden tool
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. prune — to trim
  13. wake — to stop sleeping
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. face — to confront
  16. prune — the fruit
  17. wind — moving air
  18. fork — in a road
  19. date — the fruit
  20. hand — in cards
  21. date — on the calendar
  22. game — a match
  23. wake — a trail
  24. date — on the calendar

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