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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: wake · fork · bat · pit · game · rush · spell · row

  1. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  2. That must've been a ________________.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  5. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  10. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  11. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  12. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  13. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  22. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  23. How do you ________________ your surname?
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. rush — hurry
  2. rush — a thrill
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. fork — a garden tool
  5. game — wild animals
  6. bat — the animal
  7. pit — a fruit stone
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. spell — a short time
  10. wake — before a funeral
  11. fork — to eat with
  12. pit — a hole
  13. wake — a trail
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. pit — in a race
  17. row — a line
  18. game — a match
  19. rush — to hurry
  20. row — to paddle
  21. wake — to stop sleeping
  22. fork — in a road
  23. spell — letters
  24. spell — magic

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