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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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  6. The ________________ market has crashed.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  9. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  10. He is an ace ________________.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  16. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  21. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  22. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  23. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. content — happy
  3. march — the month
  4. march — music
  5. rock — a stone
  6. stock — shares
  7. cold — not warm
  8. rock — music
  9. stock — a soup base
  10. pitcher — in baseball
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. calf — a young animal
  13. hand — in cards
  14. march — the month
  15. content — the amount
  16. calf — a young animal
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. pitcher — a jug
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. rock — to move gently
  22. stock — goods
  23. calf — of the leg
  24. cold — an illness

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