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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 ________________ market has crashed.
  2. That was a fun ________________.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  7. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  8. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  9. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  10. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  24. I had a ________________ with my boss today.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — shares
  2. game — a match
  3. clip — for paper
  4. stock — a soup base
  5. spell — letters
  6. spell — a short time
  7. pit — a hole
  8. pit — in a race
  9. pit — a fruit stone
  10. object — to protest
  11. clip — to cut
  12. row — to paddle
  13. object — an aim
  14. game — wild animals
  15. spell — magic
  16. chest — of your body
  17. clip — a video
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. row — a line
  20. chest — of your body
  21. object — a thing
  22. chest — a box
  23. stock — goods
  24. row — a quarrel

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