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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 girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. The ________________ market has crashed.
  3. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  6. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  10. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  11. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  12. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  15. The ________________ went through the wall.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. stock — shares
  3. snap — to speak sharply
  4. chest — of your body
  5. snap — to click
  6. drill — a practice
  7. chest — of your body
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. snap — to snap out of it
  10. nail — on a finger
  11. drill — the tool
  12. stock — goods
  13. row — to paddle
  14. content — the amount
  15. nail — for a hammer
  16. cold — an illness
  17. content — happy
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. stock — a soup base
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. chest — a box
  22. nail — for a hammer
  23. cold — not warm
  24. drill — army training

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