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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 · stem · mine · band · file · chest · shower · kid

  1. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  5. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  11. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  17. The ________________ market has crashed.
  18. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  23. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. chest — of your body
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. kid — child
  5. band — a music group
  6. shower — to wash
  7. file — a tool
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. stock — a soup base
  11. file — a document
  12. file — a line of people
  13. shower — rain
  14. stock — goods
  15. mine — for digging
  16. stem — of a plant
  17. stock — shares
  18. stem — a stem cell
  19. chest — a box
  20. stem — to come from
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. band — a ring
  23. kid — to tease
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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