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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. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  2. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Did you ________________ the meat?
  7. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  13. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. The ________________ market has crashed.
  16. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  21. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  22. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  23. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. season — of the year
  2. current — electric
  3. cold — not warm
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. cold — an illness
  6. season — to add flavour
  7. trunk — of a car
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. shower — to wash
  10. kick — a thrill
  11. bat — the animal
  12. current — happening now
  13. trunk — of a tree
  14. shower — rain
  15. stock — shares
  16. stock — a soup base
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. stock — goods
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. season — in sport
  21. current — of water
  22. kick — in football
  23. kick — with a leg
  24. bat — in an idiom

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