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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. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  3. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  4. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  5. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Have you found your soul ________________?
  9. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  10. The ________________ market has crashed.
  11. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  14. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  15. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. That must've been a ________________.
  18. We're on a ________________ here.
  19. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  20. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. Recycle the empty soda ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. can — a tin
  3. mate — a friend
  4. stock — goods
  5. roll — a list
  6. cold — not warm
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. mate — a partner
  9. can — to be able to
  10. stock — shares
  11. race — the arms race
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. roll — a cake
  14. race — humankind
  15. mate — to breed
  16. race — a contest
  17. rush — a thrill
  18. roll — on a roll
  19. stock — a soup base
  20. rush — hurry
  21. content — the amount
  22. rush — to hurry
  23. cold — an illness
  24. can — a tin

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