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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: cold · bowl · sharp · game · tear · present · stock · vault

  1. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  3. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  9. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  17. It's one o'clock ________________.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. The ________________ market has crashed.
  20. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  21. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  22. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  23. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  24. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. bowl — a football final
  3. vault — a safe
  4. game — wild animals
  5. present — the time now
  6. game — a match
  7. tear — from crying
  8. present — there
  9. stock — goods
  10. cold — an illness
  11. sharp — clever
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. bowl — to roll
  15. cold — not warm
  16. vault — in gymnastics
  17. sharp — exactly
  18. tear — to rip
  19. stock — shares
  20. present — a gift
  21. stock — a soup base
  22. sharp — with an edge
  23. vault — an arched ceiling
  24. tear — from crying

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