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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 116 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 president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  2. The ________________ market has crashed.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  6. Have you found your soul ________________?
  7. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  8. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  9. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  17. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — to crush
  2. stock — shares
  3. last — final
  4. court — of a king
  5. squash — the sport
  6. mate — a partner
  7. mate — a friend
  8. squash — the vegetable
  9. stock — a soup base
  10. land — to come down
  11. bat — the animal
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. mate — to breed
  14. march — the month
  15. court — for sport
  16. last — finally
  17. march — music
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. court — of law
  20. stock — goods
  21. last — to go on
  22. land — a country
  23. march — the month
  24. land — ground

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