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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 116 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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The ________________ market has crashed.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  4. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  5. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  6. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  10. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  15. There's no middle ________________.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — shares
  2. land — ground
  3. ground — crushed
  4. wake — to stop sleeping
  5. wake — a trail
  6. ground — the earth
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. race — a contest
  9. wake — before a funeral
  10. race — humankind
  11. land — to come down
  12. stock — goods
  13. cold — not warm
  14. race — the arms race
  15. ground — a position
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. land — a country
  18. cold — an illness

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