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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 ________________ market has crashed.
  2. That was ________________ to happen.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  5. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  6. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. It's one o'clock ________________.
  10. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  11. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  16. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. He is an ace ________________.
  19. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  20. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  21. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  22. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  23. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — shares
  2. bound — certain
  3. wind — moving air
  4. sharp — with an edge
  5. lie — to recline
  6. wind — moving air
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. sharp — exactly
  10. lie — an untruth
  11. stock — goods
  12. cold — an illness
  13. land — a country
  14. cold — not warm
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. bound — tied together
  17. land — to come down
  18. pitcher — in baseball
  19. land — ground
  20. stock — a soup base
  21. sharp — clever
  22. lie — an untruth
  23. bound — obliged
  24. cold — the Cold War

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