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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. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  2. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  3. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  6. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  12. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  13. The ________________ market has crashed.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  16. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  17. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  18. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  19. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  22. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a hole
  2. squash — to crush
  3. rest — a break
  4. capital — money
  5. trunk — of a car
  6. branch — of a bank
  7. capital — a city
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. pit — a fruit stone
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. squash — the vegetable
  12. stock — goods
  13. stock — shares
  14. cold — not warm
  15. trunk — of a tree
  16. trunk — of an elephant
  17. branch — of a tree
  18. squash — the sport
  19. pit — in a race
  20. cold — an illness
  21. branch — a division
  22. rest — what's left
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. rest — what's left

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