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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. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  2. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  5. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  6. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  7. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  10. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  11. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  12. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  18. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  19. The ________________ market has crashed.
  20. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  23. How do you ________________ your surname?
  24. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.

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

Answer key

  1. racket — a loud noise
  2. squash — the sport
  3. cold — not warm
  4. fall — to drop
  5. spell — a short time
  6. racket — for tennis
  7. scale — for weighing
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. scale — in music
  10. racket — for tennis
  11. fall — the season
  12. stock — goods
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. scale — size or range
  16. cold — an illness
  17. spell — magic
  18. fall — to drop
  19. stock — shares
  20. squash — the vegetable
  21. content — the amount
  22. content — happy
  23. spell — letters
  24. squash — to crush

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