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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. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  2. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  5. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  14. The ________________ market has crashed.
  15. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  18. The ________________ went through the wall.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  21. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  24. What's the difference between broth and ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. stock — goods
  2. craft — boats
  3. field — farmland
  4. patient — calm and waiting
  5. craft — a skill
  6. cold — an illness
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. cold — not warm
  10. craft — a handicraft
  11. field — for sport
  12. clip — a video
  13. perch — the fish
  14. stock — shares
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. clip — to cut
  17. nail — on a finger
  18. nail — for a hammer
  19. clip — for paper
  20. nail — for a hammer
  21. patient — a sick person
  22. field — a subject
  23. patient — a sick person
  24. stock — a soup base

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