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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. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  16. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  17. The ________________ market has crashed.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  22. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  23. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — a soup base
  2. chair — a leader
  3. cold — not warm
  4. mark — a grade
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. shower — a meteor shower
  7. shower — rain
  8. mark — a trace
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. degree — an amount
  12. race — a contest
  13. cold — an illness
  14. shower — to wash
  15. can — a tin
  16. race — the arms race
  17. stock — shares
  18. race — humankind
  19. can — to be able to
  20. degree — temperature
  21. stock — goods
  22. mark — to pay attention
  23. can — a tin
  24. degree — from a university

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