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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 ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  9. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  10. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  15. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  16. False peace will not ________________.
  17. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  23. The ________________ market has crashed.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. cold — an illness
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. cold — not warm
  5. bat — the animal
  6. clip — a video
  7. clip — to cut
  8. degree — from a university
  9. stock — goods
  10. last — final
  11. degree — temperature
  12. last — finally
  13. clip — for paper
  14. stock — a soup base
  15. club — for golf
  16. last — to go on
  17. land — ground
  18. land — to come down
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. club — a group
  21. degree — an amount
  22. club — for dancing
  23. stock — shares
  24. land — a country

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