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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. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  2. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  3. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  9. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  10. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  13. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. When will it ________________ you to start?
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  19. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  20. The ________________ market has crashed.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — a soup base
  2. bass — the instrument
  3. drill — the tool
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. field — for sport
  6. chair — a leader
  7. field — a subject
  8. drill — a practice
  9. bass — the fish
  10. bass — low music
  11. field — farmland
  12. stock — goods
  13. suit — in cards
  14. land — ground
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. suit — to fit
  17. cold — an illness
  18. drill — army training
  19. suit — clothes
  20. stock — shares
  21. cold — not warm
  22. land — to come down
  23. chair — a professorship
  24. land — a country

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