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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: hand · mug · roll · cold · can · stock · court · chest

  1. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  2. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  12. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  13. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. We're on a ________________ here.
  21. Where did you ________________ them?
  22. The ________________ market has crashed.
  23. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. roll — a cake
  2. mug — a face
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. court — of a king
  5. chest — a box
  6. chest — of your body
  7. mug — a cup
  8. cold — not warm
  9. can — a tin
  10. cold — an illness
  11. roll — a list
  12. can — to be able to
  13. stock — a soup base
  14. chest — of your body
  15. court — for sport
  16. hand — help
  17. can — a tin
  18. hand — in cards
  19. court — of law
  20. roll — on a roll
  21. mug — to rob
  22. stock — shares
  23. stock — goods
  24. cold — the Cold War

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