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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. The ________________ market has crashed.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. That must've been a ________________.
  4. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  5. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  6. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  7. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  11. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  14. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  15. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  18. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  19. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  24. The players ran onto the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — shares
  2. shower — to wash
  3. rush — a thrill
  4. net — after costs
  5. net — for catching
  6. rush — to hurry
  7. pitch — a sales talk
  8. bat — the animal
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. rush — hurry
  11. wind — moving air
  12. wind — moving air
  13. stock — goods
  14. stock — a soup base
  15. net — in sport
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. pitch — completely
  18. scale — for weighing
  19. scale — in music
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. shower — rain
  23. scale — size or range
  24. pitch — a sports field

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