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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: chest · wound · content · mate · stock · rush · field · track

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  3. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  4. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  5. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  6. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  7. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  8. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  9. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  10. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  11. Have you found your soul ________________?
  12. That must've been a ________________.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. The ________________ market has crashed.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  20. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. stock — goods
  3. track — to keep track
  4. content — videos and posts
  5. rush — hurry
  6. track — a path
  7. rush — to hurry
  8. mate — a friend
  9. stock — a soup base
  10. track — a song
  11. mate — a partner
  12. rush — a thrill
  13. field — for sport
  14. field — farmland
  15. wound — past of 'wind'
  16. chest — a box
  17. stock — shares
  18. wound — an injury
  19. chest — of your body
  20. mate — to breed
  21. wound — an injury
  22. content — the amount
  23. chest — of your body
  24. field — a subject

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