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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. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. The King held a masked ________________.
  11. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  12. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  16. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  17. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  18. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  19. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  20. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. The ________________ market has crashed.
  23. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — a soup base
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. cold — not warm
  4. land — a country
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. land — to come down
  8. court — of a king
  9. court — for sport
  10. ball — a dance
  11. fall — to drop
  12. ball — a great time
  13. bat — the animal
  14. wind — moving air
  15. stock — goods
  16. fall — to drop
  17. ball — a round shape
  18. court — of law
  19. land — ground
  20. fall — the season
  21. cold — an illness
  22. stock — shares
  23. wind — moving air
  24. bat — in an idiom

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