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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. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  2. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  3. The ________________ took off on time.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. The ________________ market has crashed.
  6. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  7. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  8. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  9. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  14. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  15. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  16. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  20. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. My father caught me by the ________________.
  24. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — a soup base
  2. craft — a skill
  3. plane — an aircraft
  4. field — farmland
  5. stock — shares
  6. craft — boats
  7. stock — goods
  8. arm — part of the body
  9. scale — size or range
  10. field — for sport
  11. plane — a tool
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. bark — to shout
  14. arm — a part of something
  15. craft — a handicraft
  16. scale — in music
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. field — a subject
  19. plane — in geometry
  20. bark — a dog's sound
  21. cold — not warm
  22. cold — an illness
  23. arm — part of the body
  24. bark — of a tree

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