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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 120 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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  4. He is an ace ________________.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  9. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  10. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  11. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. The ________________ market has crashed.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  21. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  22. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  23. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  24. Fill up this ________________ with water.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. spring — of water
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. pitcher — in baseball
  5. spring — the season
  6. stock — goods
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. fork — to eat with
  9. fork — a garden tool
  10. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  11. wake — to stop sleeping
  12. degree — an amount
  13. spring — a coil
  14. game — a match
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. degree — from a university
  17. game — wild animals
  18. stock — shares
  19. degree — temperature
  20. wake — a trail
  21. kid — child
  22. wake — before a funeral
  23. fork — in a road
  24. pitcher — a jug

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