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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. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. The ________________ market has crashed.
  3. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  10. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  13. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  18. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. stock — shares
  3. hide — animal skin
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. tear — from crying
  6. hand — in cards
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. court — of law
  9. stock — goods
  10. bear — the animal
  11. cold — an illness
  12. hide — to keep secret
  13. stock — a soup base
  14. tear — to rip
  15. cold — not warm
  16. tear — from crying
  17. bear — the animal
  18. hide — to keep secret
  19. hand — help
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. court — of a king
  22. bear — to put up with
  23. game — a match
  24. game — wild animals

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