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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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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: cell · present · cold · content · stock · fork · arm · plane

  1. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  2. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  3. The ________________ market has crashed.
  4. The ________________ took off on time.
  5. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  6. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  9. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  13. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  17. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  18. My father caught me by the ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  21. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  22. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  23. He was locked up in a ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. present — there
  2. stock — a soup base
  3. stock — shares
  4. plane — an aircraft
  5. plane — a tool
  6. fork — a garden tool
  7. content — happy
  8. present — a gift
  9. cell — in biology
  10. content — the amount
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. arm — part of the body
  13. plane — in geometry
  14. cell — a phone
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. fork — to eat with
  17. stock — goods
  18. arm — part of the body
  19. cold — an illness
  20. arm — a part of something
  21. fork — in a road
  22. present — the time now
  23. cell — in a prison
  24. cold — not warm

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