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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. It's one o'clock ________________.
  2. The ________________ market has crashed.
  3. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. David sat on the ________________.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  17. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — exactly
  2. stock — shares
  3. row — to paddle
  4. court — of a king
  5. field — a subject
  6. swing — music
  7. kid — to tease
  8. stock — goods
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. kid — child
  11. court — for sport
  12. swing — to play on
  13. field — for sport
  14. cold — not warm
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. stock — a soup base
  17. sharp — clever
  18. field — farmland
  19. court — of law
  20. sharp — with an edge
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. row — a line
  23. cold — an illness
  24. swing — in golf

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