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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. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. The ________________ market has crashed.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  13. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  16. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  17. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  21. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  22. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  23. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — the tool
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. stock — shares
  4. bat — the animal
  5. capital — money
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. band — a ring
  8. file — a line of people
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. band — a music group
  11. capital — a city
  12. drill — a practice
  13. stock — goods
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. band — a rubber band
  16. deal — to handle
  17. deal — an agreement
  18. file — a document
  19. hand — in cards
  20. drill — army training
  21. hand — help
  22. stock — a soup base
  23. deal — a big deal
  24. file — a tool

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