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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 124 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: shower · game · bat · rest · stock · march · stem · field

  1. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  3. The ________________ market has crashed.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  8. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  13. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. rest — what's left
  3. stock — shares
  4. game — a match
  5. march — the month
  6. march — music
  7. stem — to come from
  8. rest — what's left
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. field — for sport
  12. stem — of a plant
  13. stock — goods
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. bat — the animal
  16. stock — a soup base
  17. game — wild animals
  18. shower — to wash
  19. stem — a stem cell
  20. march — the month
  21. rest — a break
  22. field — a subject
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. shower — rain

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