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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 116 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 fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. There's no middle ________________.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  6. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  15. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  18. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. The ________________ market has crashed.
  21. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  22. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  23. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  24. I play ________________ in a jazz band.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — the fish
  2. shower — rain
  3. ground — a position
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. stock — a soup base
  6. straw — dry grass
  7. cold — not warm
  8. lash — to lash out
  9. shower — to wash
  10. capital — money
  11. capital — a city
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. ground — the earth
  15. stock — goods
  16. cold — an illness
  17. shower — a meteor shower
  18. lash — a whip stroke
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. stock — shares
  21. lash — an eyelash
  22. ground — crushed
  23. bass — low music
  24. bass — the instrument

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