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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. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  2. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  10. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  11. The ________________ market has crashed.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  14. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  24. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.

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

Answer key

  1. trunk — of an elephant
  2. snap — to snap out of it
  3. cold — an illness
  4. deal — a big deal
  5. spring — the season
  6. cold — not warm
  7. game — wild animals
  8. game — a match
  9. stock — a soup base
  10. trunk — of a tree
  11. stock — shares
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. stock — goods
  14. deal — an agreement
  15. field — for sport
  16. spring — a coil
  17. trunk — of a car
  18. spring — of water
  19. snap — to click
  20. field — a subject
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. field — farmland
  23. snap — to speak sharply
  24. deal — to handle

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