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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. The ________________ market has crashed.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  4. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. You don't need to ________________ round.
  9. We're almost out of ________________.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Have you found your soul ________________?
  13. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  18. That must've been a ________________.
  19. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  20. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — shares
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. mate — a friend
  4. stock — goods
  5. cold — an illness
  6. mate — to breed
  7. cold — not warm
  8. pop — to visit
  9. pop — soda
  10. spring — of water
  11. clip — a video
  12. mate — a partner
  13. stock — a soup base
  14. clip — for paper
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. spring — a coil
  17. wound — an injury
  18. rush — a thrill
  19. rush — to hurry
  20. rush — hurry
  21. spring — the season
  22. clip — to cut
  23. wound — an injury
  24. pop — music

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