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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: stock · straw · band · stick · rest · clip · cold · bat

  1. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  2. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  3. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  4. The ________________ market has crashed.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  7. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  8. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  13. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. What's the difference between broth and ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. band — a rubber band
  2. rest — what's left
  3. band — a music group
  4. stock — shares
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. straw — a straw man
  7. stock — goods
  8. stick — a piece of wood
  9. clip — a video
  10. cold — not warm
  11. clip — for paper
  12. rest — what's left
  13. rest — a break
  14. clip — to cut
  15. straw — to clutch at straws
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. stick — to attach or keep to
  18. cold — an illness
  19. band — a ring
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. stick — a piece of wood
  23. bat — the animal
  24. stock — a soup base

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