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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 116 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. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  2. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  5. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  12. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  16. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. The ________________ market has crashed.
  19. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  20. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — a soup base
  2. rest — a break
  3. wind — moving air
  4. stock — goods
  5. object — a thing
  6. spring — a coil
  7. degree — an amount
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. cold — not warm
  10. spring — of water
  11. rest — what's left
  12. degree — from a university
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. cold — an illness
  15. perch — the fish
  16. wind — moving air
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. stock — shares
  19. object — to protest
  20. rest — what's left
  21. spring — the season
  22. perch — for a bird
  23. degree — temperature
  24. object — an aim

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