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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: rash · field · stem · face · land · stock · cold · clip

  1. The ________________ market has crashed.
  2. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  3. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  8. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. Don't do anything ________________.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — shares
  2. stem — of a plant
  3. stem — a stem cell
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. land — a country
  6. clip — for paper
  7. face — part of the head
  8. stock — a soup base
  9. field — a subject
  10. stock — goods
  11. cold — an illness
  12. cold — not warm
  13. rash — a series
  14. clip — to cut
  15. field — for sport
  16. rash — hasty
  17. land — to come down
  18. rash — on the skin
  19. field — farmland
  20. face — to point toward
  21. land — ground
  22. stem — to come from
  23. clip — a video
  24. face — to confront

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