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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: march · file · capital · fork · kid · plane · chair · rash

  1. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. Don't do anything ________________.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  8. The ________________ took off on time.
  9. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  10. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  18. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  24. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fork — to eat with
  2. march — the month
  3. rash — hasty
  4. file — a line of people
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. chair — a leader
  7. march — music
  8. plane — an aircraft
  9. fork — a garden tool
  10. rash — on the skin
  11. file — a tool
  12. march — the month
  13. plane — a tool
  14. capital — money
  15. file — a document
  16. capital — a city
  17. fork — in a road
  18. rash — a series
  19. kid — to tease
  20. chair — a professorship
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. kid — child
  23. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  24. plane — in geometry

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