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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. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  3. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. The ________________ went through the wall.
  13. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  16. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  17. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  18. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. The flowers bloom in the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — shares
  2. patient — a sick person
  3. patient — calm and waiting
  4. clip — to cut
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. wind — moving air
  7. bat — the animal
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. clip — for paper
  12. nail — for a hammer
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. spring — of water
  15. nail — for a hammer
  16. shower — to wash
  17. nail — on a finger
  18. stock — goods
  19. wind — moving air
  20. clip — a video
  21. shower — rain
  22. spring — a coil
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. spring — the season

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