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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 120 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: cold · bowl · tear · pit · race · hand · stock · mine

  1. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  2. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  3. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  17. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  20. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. The ________________ market has crashed.
  23. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  24. Boris sat near the fire ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. race — a contest
  2. bowl — a football final
  3. stock — goods
  4. cold — an illness
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. stock — a soup base
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. bowl — to roll
  9. cold — not warm
  10. tear — from crying
  11. hand — help
  12. race — the arms race
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. mine — for digging
  15. hand — in cards
  16. race — humankind
  17. mine — belonging to me
  18. tear — to rip
  19. bowl — a dish
  20. pit — in a race
  21. tear — from crying
  22. stock — shares
  23. pit — a fruit stone
  24. pit — a hole

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