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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: bat · clip · race · kick · bowl · stock

  1. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  3. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  6. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  7. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  16. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  17. The ________________ market has crashed.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. kick — a thrill
  3. kick — in football
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. bowl — a football final
  6. race — the arms race
  7. bowl — to roll
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. clip — for paper
  10. clip — to cut
  11. stock — goods
  12. clip — a video
  13. kick — with a leg
  14. race — a contest
  15. stock — a soup base
  16. race — humankind
  17. stock — shares
  18. bat — the animal

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