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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 supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  2. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. The ________________ market has crashed.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  18. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  24. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — goods
  2. march — the month
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. cold — an illness
  5. straw — a straw man
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. stock — shares
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. cold — not warm
  10. march — music
  11. field — for sport
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. present — a gift
  14. clip — to cut
  15. squash — the sport
  16. clip — a video
  17. squash — the vegetable
  18. present — there
  19. march — the month
  20. clip — for paper
  21. squash — to crush
  22. field — a subject
  23. field — farmland
  24. present — the time now

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