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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. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  2. That must've been a ________________.
  3. Did you ________________ the meat?
  4. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  7. The ________________ market has crashed.
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  14. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  15. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  18. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  19. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  22. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  24. What's the difference between broth and ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. season — in sport
  2. rush — a thrill
  3. season — to add flavour
  4. stock — goods
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. rush — to hurry
  7. stock — shares
  8. last — final
  9. cold — not warm
  10. clip — a video
  11. rush — hurry
  12. clip — for paper
  13. racket — for tennis
  14. last — finally
  15. branch — a division
  16. clip — to cut
  17. season — of the year
  18. racket — a loud noise
  19. racket — for tennis
  20. cold — an illness
  21. branch — of a tree
  22. branch — of a bank
  23. last — to go on
  24. stock — a soup base

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