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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 120 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. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. The ________________ market has crashed.
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  6. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  9. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  14. Don't do anything ________________.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. False peace will not ________________.
  17. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  21. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  24. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. chest — a box
  3. stock — shares
  4. snap — to click
  5. vault — in gymnastics
  6. rash — a series
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. vault — a safe
  9. band — a ring
  10. band — a music group
  11. chest — of your body
  12. cold — not warm
  13. snap — to snap out of it
  14. rash — hasty
  15. chest — of your body
  16. last — to go on
  17. vault — an arched ceiling
  18. cold — an illness
  19. last — final
  20. rash — on the skin
  21. snap — to speak sharply
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. band — a rubber band
  24. stock — goods

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