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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: cold · content · fork · race · can · band · coach · bat

  1. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  2. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  3. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  4. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  5. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  6. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  7. Have you met the new head ________________?
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  18. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  19. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  20. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  21. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  24. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fork — to eat with
  2. fork — a garden tool
  3. band — a music group
  4. can — a tin
  5. content — the amount
  6. coach — pulled by horses
  7. coach — a trainer
  8. content — happy
  9. content — videos and posts
  10. cold — an illness
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. cold — not warm
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. bat — the animal
  17. race — the arms race
  18. can — a tin
  19. band — a ring
  20. fork — in a road
  21. can — to be able to
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. race — a contest
  24. race — humankind

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