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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 · rush · degree · cell · bore · field · cold · net

  1. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  4. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. The ________________ market has crashed.
  11. That must've been a ________________.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  17. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  22. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  23. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  24. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?

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

Answer key

  1. stock — goods
  2. net — after costs
  3. bore — gave birth
  4. rush — hurry
  5. cold — not warm
  6. field — for sport
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. cell — in biology
  9. cell — a phone
  10. stock — shares
  11. rush — a thrill
  12. field — farmland
  13. degree — from a university
  14. cold — an illness
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. bore — to drill
  17. net — in sport
  18. degree — temperature
  19. bore — to tire
  20. field — a subject
  21. net — for catching
  22. stock — a soup base
  23. rush — to hurry
  24. degree — an amount

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