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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. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  4. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  7. He is an ace ________________.
  8. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  9. The ________________ market has crashed.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  12. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  13. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  14. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  15. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  18. That must've been a ________________.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  23. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  24. Many English words ________________ from Latin.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. cold — not warm
  3. rush — hurry
  4. wound — an injury
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. stem — a stem cell
  7. pitcher — in baseball
  8. track — a song
  9. stock — shares
  10. land — to come down
  11. track — to keep track
  12. rush — to hurry
  13. wound — an injury
  14. track — a path
  15. stock — goods
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. stem — of a plant
  18. rush — a thrill
  19. land — a country
  20. stock — a soup base
  21. cold — an illness
  22. pitcher — a jug
  23. pitcher — a jug
  24. stem — to come from

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