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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. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  2. The ________________ market has crashed.
  3. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  4. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  5. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  6. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  7. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  16. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  17. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  18. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  24. There's no middle ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — rain
  2. stock — shares
  3. stem — of a plant
  4. stock — a soup base
  5. tear — from crying
  6. net — for catching
  7. stem — a stem cell
  8. ground — the earth
  9. tear — to rip
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. ground — crushed
  12. cold — not warm
  13. bat — the animal
  14. shower — to wash
  15. stem — to come from
  16. stock — goods
  17. shower — a meteor shower
  18. net — after costs
  19. cold — an illness
  20. net — in sport
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. tear — from crying
  24. ground — a position

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