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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 strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  2. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  5. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  6. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. The ________________ market has crashed.
  9. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  10. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  11. Have you met the new head ________________?
  12. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  16. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. He was locked up in a ________________.
  23. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. stock — a soup base
  3. content — happy
  4. pound — a weight
  5. club — a group
  6. club — for golf
  7. wind — moving air
  8. stock — shares
  9. coach — a trainer
  10. pound — to hit hard
  11. coach — a trainer
  12. cell — a phone
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. coach — pulled by horses
  16. club — for dancing
  17. game — a match
  18. stock — goods
  19. content — the amount
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. cell — in biology
  22. cell — in a prison
  23. pound — for dogs
  24. game — wild animals

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