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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: stock · track · mate · ground · bat · cold · shower · rule

  1. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  2. Have you found your soul ________________?
  3. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  4. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  5. There's no middle ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  9. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  16. The ________________ market has crashed.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. Remember our ________________: no talking to strangers, no matter what.
  21. Will civil ________________ and democracy continue in Algeria?
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The chairman did not ________________ out the possibility of a disagreement.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — the earth
  2. mate — a partner
  3. mate — to breed
  4. stock — a soup base
  5. ground — a position
  6. cold — not warm
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. stock — goods
  9. track — a song
  10. bat — the animal
  11. ground — crushed
  12. cold — an illness
  13. track — to keep track
  14. shower — to wash
  15. mate — a friend
  16. stock — shares
  17. shower — rain
  18. track — a path
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. rule — a law
  21. rule — government
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. rule — to rule out
  24. bat — in an idiom

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