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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: scale · stock · cold · land · tear · deal · cell · plane

  1. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  2. The ________________ market has crashed.
  3. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  4. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  7. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  8. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  20. The ________________ took off on time.
  21. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  24. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. deal — a big deal
  2. stock — shares
  3. plane — a tool
  4. deal — an agreement
  5. cold — an illness
  6. stock — a soup base
  7. stock — goods
  8. scale — in music
  9. cell — a phone
  10. land — ground
  11. cell — in biology
  12. scale — size or range
  13. cold — not warm
  14. deal — to handle
  15. tear — to rip
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. land — a country
  19. tear — from crying
  20. plane — an aircraft
  21. scale — for weighing
  22. land — to come down
  23. tear — from crying
  24. plane — in geometry

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