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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 ________________ market has crashed.
  2. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  3. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  4. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  5. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  6. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  9. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  13. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  20. It's one o'clock ________________.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — shares
  2. straw — to clutch at straws
  3. stock — a soup base
  4. sharp — with an edge
  5. straw — a straw man
  6. content — the amount
  7. sharp — clever
  8. trunk — of a tree
  9. stock — goods
  10. capital — a city
  11. march — the month
  12. content — happy
  13. capital — money
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. bat — the animal
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. trunk — of a car
  20. sharp — exactly
  21. march — the month
  22. trunk — of an elephant
  23. march — music
  24. content — videos and posts

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