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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: chest · tear · bat · stock · last · drill · shower · chip

  1. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  3. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  10. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  15. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  21. The ________________ market has crashed.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. drill — a practice
  3. chip — to eat
  4. chest — of your body
  5. chest — of your body
  6. chest — a box
  7. chip — for betting
  8. last — final
  9. shower — rain
  10. stock — goods
  11. bat — the animal
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. tear — from crying
  14. drill — the tool
  15. stock — a soup base
  16. tear — to rip
  17. last — finally
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. chip — in a computer
  21. stock — shares
  22. tear — from crying
  23. last — to go on
  24. drill — army training

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