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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. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  2. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  3. The ________________ market has crashed.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  10. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  17. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  18. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  22. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  23. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  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. current — of water
  2. stock — a soup base
  3. stock — shares
  4. cold — not warm
  5. spring — the season
  6. spring — a coil
  7. march — the month
  8. march — the month
  9. stem — to come from
  10. trunk — of a car
  11. cold — an illness
  12. stock — goods
  13. land — ground
  14. march — music
  15. land — a country
  16. current — electric
  17. trunk — of a tree
  18. trunk — of an elephant
  19. land — to come down
  20. spring — of water
  21. current — happening now
  22. stem — a stem cell
  23. stem — of a plant
  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