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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 120 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. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  22. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  23. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  24. The ________________ market has crashed.

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

Answer key

  1. firm — a company
  2. bat — the animal
  3. march — the month
  4. firm — steady
  5. mine — for digging
  6. field — farmland
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. march — music
  10. spring — the season
  11. spring — a coil
  12. file — a line of people
  13. march — the month
  14. field — for sport
  15. field — a subject
  16. file — a document
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. stock — a soup base
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. spring — of water
  21. file — a tool
  22. firm — decided
  23. stock — goods
  24. stock — shares

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