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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 124 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 water is too ________________.
  2. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  3. Did you ________________ the button?
  4. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  5. The ________________ market has crashed.
  6. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  10. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  13. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  16. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  17. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  23. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. bass — the fish
  3. press — to push
  4. shower — to wash
  5. stock — shares
  6. row — a line
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. prune — to trim
  9. content — videos and posts
  10. prune — the fruit
  11. shower — rain
  12. bass — the instrument
  13. bass — low music
  14. row — to paddle
  15. content — happy
  16. stock — goods
  17. press — a publisher
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. prune — to trim
  21. cold — an illness
  22. press — newspapers
  23. row — a quarrel
  24. content — the amount

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