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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: land · stock · cold · hand · tear · press · chest · march

  1. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  11. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  15. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  16. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. Did you ________________ the button?
  19. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  22. The ________________ market has crashed.
  23. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  24. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — part of the body
  2. cold — not warm
  3. chest — of your body
  4. tear — from crying
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. cold — an illness
  7. hand — help
  8. hand — in cards
  9. land — to come down
  10. press — a publisher
  11. stock — a soup base
  12. tear — to rip
  13. march — the month
  14. press — newspapers
  15. stock — goods
  16. march — the month
  17. chest — of your body
  18. press — to push
  19. chest — a box
  20. land — a country
  21. land — ground
  22. stock — shares
  23. march — music
  24. tear — from crying

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