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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. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  3. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  4. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  5. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  6. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  7. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  10. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. The ________________ market has crashed.
  22. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  23. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — a soup base
  2. perch — for a bird
  3. rule — a law
  4. shower — to wash
  5. perch — the fish
  6. rule — government
  7. snap — to click
  8. net — for catching
  9. net — in sport
  10. stock — goods
  11. mine — for digging
  12. net — after costs
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. rule — to rule out
  15. file — a tool
  16. file — a line of people
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. mine — belonging to me
  20. shower — rain
  21. stock — shares
  22. snap — to snap out of it
  23. mine — an explosive
  24. file — a document

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