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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 · row · chair · degree · rock · spring · kid · tear

  1. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. The ________________ market has crashed.
  3. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  11. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  16. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  19. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. stock — shares
  3. chair — to sit on
  4. kid — to tease
  5. spring — a coil
  6. spring — the season
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. tear — to rip
  9. tear — from crying
  10. chair — a professorship
  11. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  12. chair — a leader
  13. degree — from a university
  14. tear — from crying
  15. rock — music
  16. degree — an amount
  17. row — a line
  18. stock — goods
  19. row — a quarrel
  20. kid — child
  21. rock — to move gently
  22. row — to paddle
  23. rock — a stone
  24. degree — temperature

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