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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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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: cold · ball · stock · hide · race · field

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. The ________________ market has crashed.
  5. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  6. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  9. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  12. The King held a masked ________________.
  13. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  14. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. field — a subject
  3. ball — a great time
  4. stock — shares
  5. race — the arms race
  6. stock — a soup base
  7. field — for sport
  8. hide — to keep secret
  9. race — humankind
  10. field — farmland
  11. stock — goods
  12. ball — a dance
  13. race — a contest
  14. ball — a round shape
  15. cold — not warm
  16. hide — to keep secret
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. hide — animal skin

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