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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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  5. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  8. The ________________ market has crashed.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  11. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  12. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  13. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  14. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  19. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  20. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  21. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. How do you ________________ your surname?
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. stock — goods
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. spell — magic
  5. straw — a straw man
  6. cold — not warm
  7. net — in sport
  8. stock — shares
  9. cold — an illness
  10. craft — boats
  11. band — a rubber band
  12. net — for catching
  13. band — a music group
  14. craft — a skill
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. stock — a soup base
  19. craft — a handicraft
  20. spell — a short time
  21. net — after costs
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. spell — letters
  24. bat — the animal

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