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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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. The ________________ market has crashed.
  6. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  7. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  8. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  9. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  10. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  11. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  14. He is an ace ________________.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  24. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. ruler — for measuring
  4. cell — a phone
  5. stock — shares
  6. ruler — a monarch
  7. pitcher — a jug
  8. degree — an amount
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. cell — in biology
  11. face — part of the head
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. stock — a soup base
  14. pitcher — in baseball
  15. cold — an illness
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. cold — not warm
  18. face — to confront
  19. degree — from a university
  20. ruler — for measuring
  21. hand — in cards
  22. degree — temperature
  23. face — to point toward
  24. stock — goods

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