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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. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. It's one o'clock ________________.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  6. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  9. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  10. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  18. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  19. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  22. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — with an edge
  2. land — ground
  3. sharp — exactly
  4. land — a country
  5. track — a path
  6. track — a song
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. race — a contest
  9. track — to keep track
  10. sharp — clever
  11. race — the arms race
  12. stock — shares
  13. cold — an illness
  14. kid — to tease
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. land — to come down
  17. prune — to trim
  18. stock — goods
  19. stock — a soup base
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. race — humankind
  22. prune — to trim
  23. cold — not warm
  24. kid — child

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