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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. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  2. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  6. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  21. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — a soup base
  2. game — wild animals
  3. stock — goods
  4. game — a match
  5. hand — part of the body
  6. hand — in cards
  7. wind — moving air
  8. chair — a leader
  9. wax — to grow
  10. march — music
  11. wax — for sculpting
  12. stock — shares
  13. cold — an illness
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. hand — help
  17. chair — a professorship
  18. cold — not warm
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. march — the month
  21. wax — in the ear
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. march — the month
  24. wind — moving air

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