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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  3. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  6. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  9. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  10. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. The ________________ market has crashed.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. The ball is in your ________________.
  24. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. stock — a soup base
  3. cap — a hat
  4. hand — help
  5. stock — goods
  6. craft — a handicraft
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. craft — boats
  9. prune — to trim
  10. cap — of ice
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. cap — a lid
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. bat — the animal
  15. prune — to trim
  16. court — of law
  17. stock — shares
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. field — a subject
  20. craft — a skill
  21. hand — in cards
  22. field — for sport
  23. court — for sport
  24. court — of a king

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