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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. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  2. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  3. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  4. The ________________ market has crashed.
  5. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  20. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  24. What's the difference between broth and ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. rule — a law
  2. stock — goods
  3. pitch — a sports field
  4. stock — shares
  5. rule — government
  6. land — ground
  7. bat — the animal
  8. content — happy
  9. fork — in a road
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. pitch — a sales talk
  12. field — a subject
  13. field — farmland
  14. fork — to eat with
  15. land — a country
  16. content — videos and posts
  17. land — to come down
  18. field — for sport
  19. fork — a garden tool
  20. rule — to rule out
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. content — the amount
  23. pitch — completely
  24. stock — a soup base

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