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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. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  2. The ________________ market has crashed.
  3. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  12. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  20. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  21. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  22. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. bank — for money
  2. stock — shares
  3. bank — for money
  4. row — a line
  5. clip — for paper
  6. bowl — to roll
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. bowl — a dish
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. clip — a video
  11. stock — a soup base
  12. bowl — a football final
  13. cold — not warm
  14. row — to paddle
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. clip — to cut
  17. bank — of a river
  18. bat — the animal
  19. stock — goods
  20. wave — with your hand
  21. wave — a sudden rise
  22. wave — of the sea
  23. cold — an illness
  24. cold — the Cold War

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