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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. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  2. The ________________ market has crashed.
  3. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  7. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. There's no middle ________________.
  24. The players ran onto the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — goods
  2. stock — shares
  3. ground — crushed
  4. chest — of your body
  5. chest — of your body
  6. stock — a soup base
  7. pitch — a sales talk
  8. spring — a coil
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. pitch — completely
  11. capital — money
  12. spring — of water
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. bark — to shout
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. chest — a box
  17. ground — the earth
  18. capital — a city
  19. straw — dry grass
  20. spring — the season
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. ground — a position
  24. pitch — a sports field

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