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

  1. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  4. I'll be taking the ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. He is an ace ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  19. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  20. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  21. The ________________ market has crashed.
  22. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  23. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  24. The ball hit the back of the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — a soup base
  2. cold — not warm
  3. net — for catching
  4. tube — the underground
  5. cold — an illness
  6. tube — in a tire
  7. chest — of your body
  8. chip — to eat
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. chest — a box
  11. net — after costs
  12. chest — of your body
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. pitcher — in baseball
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. pitcher — a jug
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. chip — in a computer
  19. tube — a container
  20. chip — for betting
  21. stock — shares
  22. stock — goods
  23. pitcher — a jug
  24. net — in sport

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