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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: rule · pitcher · bear · cold · fork · row · file · root

  1. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  2. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  3. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  4. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  5. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  11. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  16. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  19. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  20. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. He is an ace ________________.
  23. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. fork — a garden tool
  3. rule — a law
  4. rule — to rule out
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. cold — an illness
  8. fork — to eat with
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. rule — government
  11. fork — in a road
  12. file — a document
  13. cold — not warm
  14. row — to paddle
  15. bear — to put up with
  16. bear — the animal
  17. file — a line of people
  18. root — of a plant
  19. bear — the animal
  20. root — of a word
  21. row — a line
  22. pitcher — in baseball
  23. root — the cause
  24. file — a 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