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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: sharp · land · last · spell · stem · chest · stock · wind

  1. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  2. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  6. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. The ________________ market has crashed.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. It's one o'clock ________________.
  16. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  19. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  20. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. stem — to come from
  3. spell — magic
  4. spell — letters
  5. last — finally
  6. stock — a soup base
  7. chest — of your body
  8. stock — shares
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. chest — a box
  11. wind — moving air
  12. sharp — with an edge
  13. land — to come down
  14. last — to go on
  15. sharp — exactly
  16. chest — of your body
  17. spell — a short time
  18. stem — of a plant
  19. stock — goods
  20. last — final
  21. land — ground
  22. sharp — clever
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. land — a country

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