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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  3. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  4. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  5. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. The ________________ market has crashed.
  19. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  23. Did you ________________ the button?
  24. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. bowl — a dish
  3. fall — the season
  4. stock — goods
  5. bowl — a football final
  6. tear — from crying
  7. shower — rain
  8. shower — to wash
  9. fall — to drop
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. cold — not warm
  12. spring — of water
  13. fall — to drop
  14. cold — an illness
  15. press — a publisher
  16. spring — the season
  17. tear — to rip
  18. stock — shares
  19. stock — a soup base
  20. tear — from crying
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. bowl — to roll
  23. press — to push
  24. press — newspapers

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