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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 · staff · jam · cold · degree · file · coach · court

  1. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  2. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  3. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  4. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  5. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  6. Have you met the new head ________________?
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  17. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  18. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  22. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. Would you like some apricot ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. staff — employees
  2. degree — an amount
  3. staff — employees
  4. fork — a garden tool
  5. staff — a stick
  6. coach — a trainer
  7. degree — temperature
  8. degree — from a university
  9. court — of law
  10. cold — an illness
  11. cold — not warm
  12. file — a line of people
  13. file — a tool
  14. jam — a tight spot
  15. court — for sport
  16. coach — a trainer
  17. fork — to eat with
  18. fork — in a road
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. court — of a king
  21. jam — in traffic
  22. coach — pulled by horses
  23. file — a document
  24. jam — to spread on bread

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