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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 supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  2. I'll take my ________________ from you.
  3. When I cough twice, that's your ________________ to come into the room.
  4. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  5. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  6. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  14. You can't play pool without a ________________ stick.
  15. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. The ________________ market has crashed.
  21. The ________________ went through the wall.
  22. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — goods
  2. cue — a hint
  3. cue — a signal
  4. nail — for a hammer
  5. band — a rubber band
  6. drill — the tool
  7. kid — child
  8. drill — a practice
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. stock — a soup base
  11. cold — not warm
  12. cold — an illness
  13. nail — on a finger
  14. cue — for pool
  15. drill — army training
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. game — a match
  18. kid — to tease
  19. game — wild animals
  20. stock — shares
  21. nail — for a hammer
  22. band — a ring
  23. band — a music group
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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