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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: shower · date · stock · content · nail · chest

  1. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. The ________________ market has crashed.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  8. The ________________ went through the wall.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  15. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  16. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  17. Have you settled on a ________________?
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. stock — a soup base
  3. chest — of your body
  4. stock — shares
  5. shower — to wash
  6. chest — of your body
  7. stock — goods
  8. nail — for a hammer
  9. content — happy
  10. date — the fruit
  11. shower — rain
  12. nail — on a finger
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. date — on the calendar
  15. chest — a box
  16. nail — for a hammer
  17. date — on the calendar
  18. content — videos and posts

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