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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: kid · bat · saw · spell · date · net · chest · fork

  1. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. She's very handy with a ________________.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  10. Have you settled on a ________________?
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  17. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  18. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  24. He works in a ________________ mill.

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

Answer key

  1. net — in sport
  2. spell — letters
  3. saw — the tool
  4. bat — the animal
  5. chest — a box
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. fork — a garden tool
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. saw — past of 'see'
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. net — for catching
  12. date — the fruit
  13. chest — of your body
  14. fork — to eat with
  15. kid — to tease
  16. net — after costs
  17. date — on the calendar
  18. spell — a short time
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. chest — of your body
  21. kid — child
  22. spell — magic
  23. fork — in a road
  24. saw — the tool

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