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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 broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  7. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  8. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. That must've been a ________________.
  14. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  15. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  16. The ________________ went through the wall.
  17. The ________________ market has crashed.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  20. When are we going to ________________?
  21. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  22. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. nail — on a finger
  2. land — ground
  3. cold — not warm
  4. field — a subject
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. fall — the season
  7. rush — to hurry
  8. nail — for a hammer
  9. hand — in cards
  10. cold — an illness
  11. field — for sport
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. rush — a thrill
  14. fall — to drop
  15. fall — to drop
  16. nail — for a hammer
  17. stock — shares
  18. hand — help
  19. rush — hurry
  20. land — to come down
  21. stock — goods
  22. stock — a soup base
  23. land — a country
  24. field — farmland

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