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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: squash · kid · spring · land · stock · wind · court · hand

  1. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  21. The ________________ market has crashed.
  22. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. I'd like to play a game of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — goods
  2. hand — help
  3. land — to come down
  4. spring — the season
  5. court — of law
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. kid — to tease
  9. hand — in cards
  10. land — ground
  11. court — for sport
  12. kid — child
  13. land — a country
  14. wind — moving air
  15. spring — of water
  16. stock — a soup base
  17. wind — moving air
  18. squash — the vegetable
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. squash — to crush
  21. stock — shares
  22. court — of a king
  23. spring — a coil
  24. squash — the sport

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