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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. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  2. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  5. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  6. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  7. The ________________ market has crashed.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. Did you ________________ the button?
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  18. David sat on the ________________.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  22. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  23. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — goods
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. file — a tool
  4. chair — a leader
  5. degree — temperature
  6. press — a publisher
  7. stock — shares
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. land — to come down
  10. file — a line of people
  11. degree — an amount
  12. degree — from a university
  13. swing — music
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. press — to push
  16. content — the amount
  17. content — happy
  18. swing — to play on
  19. land — a country
  20. land — ground
  21. swing — in golf
  22. press — newspapers
  23. chair — to sit on
  24. file — a document

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