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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: ground · straw · leaves · shower · last · chest · game · stock

  1. The ________________ market has crashed.
  2. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  3. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  4. There's no middle ________________.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  18. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — shares
  2. straw — a straw man
  3. leaves — of a tree
  4. ground — a position
  5. last — to go on
  6. game — wild animals
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. ground — crushed
  9. last — final
  10. chest — of your body
  11. chest — a box
  12. chest — of your body
  13. shower — rain
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. stock — goods
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. leaves — to go away
  18. leaves — lets stay
  19. last — finally
  20. ground — the earth
  21. shower — to wash
  22. stock — a soup base
  23. game — a match
  24. game — a kind of play

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