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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: field · pop · land · mate · cold · stock · hand · race

  1. We're almost out of ________________.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  5. Have you found your soul ________________?
  6. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  7. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  8. You don't need to ________________ round.
  9. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  14. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. When are we going to ________________?
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — soda
  2. land — ground
  3. hand — help
  4. mate — to breed
  5. mate — a partner
  6. stock — goods
  7. race — a contest
  8. pop — to visit
  9. race — humankind
  10. cold — not warm
  11. field — farmland
  12. stock — shares
  13. mate — a friend
  14. stock — a soup base
  15. cold — an illness
  16. land — to come down
  17. field — a subject
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. land — a country
  20. race — the arms race
  21. hand — in cards
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. field — for sport
  24. pop — music

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