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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 ________________ market has crashed.
  2. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  3. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  4. David sat on the ________________.
  5. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  6. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  9. Have you met the new head ________________?
  10. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  11. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  12. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  13. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  14. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  22. It's one o'clock ________________.
  23. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  24. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — shares
  2. mark — to pay attention
  3. swing — in golf
  4. swing — to play on
  5. stock — a soup base
  6. lash — an eyelash
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. mark — a grade
  9. coach — a trainer
  10. sharp — clever
  11. stock — goods
  12. coach — pulled by horses
  13. lash — to lash out
  14. sharp — with an edge
  15. file — a line of people
  16. file — a document
  17. cold — an illness
  18. mark — a trace
  19. cold — not warm
  20. swing — music
  21. file — a tool
  22. sharp — exactly
  23. coach — a trainer
  24. lash — a whip stroke

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