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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 · last · hand · mate · race · row · wound · degree

  1. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. False peace will not ________________.
  7. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  8. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  11. Have you found your soul ________________?
  12. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  13. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  20. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  21. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?

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

Answer key

  1. fork — a garden tool
  2. degree — from a university
  3. hand — help
  4. race — the arms race
  5. last — final
  6. last — to go on
  7. race — humankind
  8. mate — to breed
  9. wound — an injury
  10. fork — in a road
  11. mate — a partner
  12. race — a contest
  13. wound — past of 'wind'
  14. row — to paddle
  15. wound — an injury
  16. degree — an amount
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. hand — in cards
  19. row — a quarrel
  20. last — finally
  21. fork — to eat with
  22. degree — temperature
  23. row — a line
  24. mate — a friend

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