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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. False peace will not ________________.
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  4. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  5. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  6. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  7. There's no middle ________________.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  10. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  11. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. The ________________ market has crashed.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. I can't ________________ this cold.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. last — to go on
  2. last — final
  3. ground — crushed
  4. last — finally
  5. stand — on your feet
  6. stock — a soup base
  7. ground — a position
  8. ground — the earth
  9. track — a path
  10. track — to keep track
  11. stock — goods
  12. bat — the animal
  13. file — a line of people
  14. stock — shares
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. file — a tool
  17. track — a song
  18. cold — an illness
  19. stand — for spectators
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. cold — not warm
  22. stand — to bear
  23. file — a document
  24. bat — in an idiom

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