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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: date · coach · cold · trunk · chest · wind · fork · degree

  1. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  4. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  11. Have you settled on a ________________?
  12. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  13. Have you met the new head ________________?
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  17. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  18. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  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. date — on the calendar
  2. cold — an illness
  3. trunk — of a car
  4. trunk — of an elephant
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. chest — of your body
  7. cold — not warm
  8. degree — temperature
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. degree — from a university
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. fork — to eat with
  13. coach — a trainer
  14. degree — an amount
  15. wind — moving air
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. date — the fruit
  18. coach — pulled by horses
  19. chest — a box
  20. fork — a garden tool
  21. chest — of your body
  22. wind — moving air
  23. trunk — of a tree
  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