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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: cold · stock · land · shower · race · stem · chip · pitcher

  1. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  2. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  3. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  4. He is an ace ________________.
  5. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  6. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  10. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  11. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. The ________________ market has crashed.
  17. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  18. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  21. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. There's a computer ________________ on the table.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. shower — a meteor shower
  3. race — a contest
  4. pitcher — in baseball
  5. chip — for betting
  6. stem — a stem cell
  7. land — ground
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. race — humankind
  11. land — a country
  12. land — to come down
  13. cold — an illness
  14. stem — to come from
  15. shower — to wash
  16. stock — shares
  17. stem — of a plant
  18. chip — to eat
  19. race — the arms race
  20. stock — a soup base
  21. stock — goods
  22. cold — not warm
  23. shower — rain
  24. chip — in a computer

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