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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. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  5. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  17. The ________________ market has crashed.
  18. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  24. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. stock — a soup base
  3. march — music
  4. cap — of ice
  5. club — for golf
  6. land — to come down
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. march — the month
  9. land — a country
  10. spring — the season
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. spring — of water
  13. row — a line
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. spring — a coil
  16. club — for dancing
  17. stock — shares
  18. cap — a lid
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. land — ground
  21. stock — goods
  22. row — to paddle
  23. club — a group
  24. cap — a hat

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