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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: stock · deal · wound · bat · face · degree · chair · club

  1. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  5. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  6. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  12. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  13. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  14. The ________________ market has crashed.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  17. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  18. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  19. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  20. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  21. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  22. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. She had a strange look on her ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for dancing
  2. bat — the animal
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. club — a group
  5. stock — a soup base
  6. chair — to sit on
  7. wound — an injury
  8. deal — to handle
  9. wound — an injury
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. stock — goods
  12. degree — temperature
  13. wound — past of 'wind'
  14. stock — shares
  15. degree — from a university
  16. bat — in an idiom
  17. face — to confront
  18. face — to point toward
  19. chair — a leader
  20. club — for golf
  21. deal — an agreement
  22. deal — a big deal
  23. degree — an amount
  24. face — part of the head

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