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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. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  4. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  14. Don't do anything ________________.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  17. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  22. Have you settled on a ________________?
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — goods
  2. bat — the animal
  3. fall — the season
  4. fall — to drop
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. rash — on the skin
  7. content — happy
  8. content — the amount
  9. date — the fruit
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. stock — shares
  13. row — a line
  14. rash — hasty
  15. hand — help
  16. stock — a soup base
  17. date — on the calendar
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. fall — to drop
  21. rash — a series
  22. date — on the calendar
  23. hand — in cards
  24. row — to paddle

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