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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 116 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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  4. The ________________ market has crashed.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. The ________________ went through the wall.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  12. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  15. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  16. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  17. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  18. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  24. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. stock — a soup base
  4. stock — shares
  5. content — happy
  6. nail — for a hammer
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. bat — the animal
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. nail — on a finger
  12. pass — a permit
  13. kid — child
  14. bark — a dog's sound
  15. pass — to spend time
  16. nail — for a hammer
  17. bark — to shout
  18. bark — of a tree
  19. content — the amount
  20. cold — an illness
  21. cold — not warm
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. pass — to succeed
  24. stock — goods

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