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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: march · wound · bark · fork · bowl · club · bat · land

  1. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  4. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  9. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  10. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  15. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  16. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  17. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  21. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  22. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — to roll
  2. march — music
  3. fork — a garden tool
  4. wound — past of 'wind'
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. bowl — a dish
  7. land — ground
  8. bowl — a football final
  9. club — for golf
  10. bark — to shout
  11. wound — an injury
  12. fork — to eat with
  13. wound — an injury
  14. march — the month
  15. fork — in a road
  16. march — the month
  17. club — for dancing
  18. bat — the animal
  19. land — a country
  20. bark — of a tree
  21. bark — a dog's sound
  22. club — a group
  23. land — to come down
  24. bat — for baseball

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