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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: stock · cabinet · chest · race · cold · bat · spring · ball

  1. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  2. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  3. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. The King held a masked ________________.
  8. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  9. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  17. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  18. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. The ________________ market has crashed.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. What do you think of the new ________________?
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — the Cold War
  2. stock — goods
  3. ball — a great time
  4. spring — the season
  5. chest — of your body
  6. spring — a coil
  7. ball — a dance
  8. chest — a box
  9. ball — a round shape
  10. spring — of water
  11. cabinet — ministers
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. cold — an illness
  14. race — a contest
  15. chest — of your body
  16. race — humankind
  17. cabinet — a cupboard
  18. stock — a soup base
  19. cold — not warm
  20. stock — shares
  21. race — the arms race
  22. cabinet — ministers
  23. bat — the animal
  24. bat — for baseball

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