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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 ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  3. You don't need to ________________ round.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. The ________________ market has crashed.
  7. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  12. We're almost out of ________________.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  19. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  20. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  21. The ________________ went through the wall.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. nail — on a finger
  3. pop — to visit
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. march — music
  6. stock — shares
  7. trunk — of an elephant
  8. cold — an illness
  9. march — the month
  10. cold — not warm
  11. trunk — of a tree
  12. pop — soda
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. stock — goods
  16. chest — of your body
  17. march — the month
  18. stock — a soup base
  19. pop — music
  20. trunk — of a car
  21. nail — for a hammer
  22. chest — a box
  23. chest — of your body
  24. nail — for a hammer

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