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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: hand · stock · saw · mine · drill · cell · date · cold

  1. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  2. Have you settled on a ________________?
  3. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  4. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  5. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  6. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  7. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  8. He was locked up in a ________________.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. He works in a ________________ mill.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  14. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. The ________________ market has crashed.
  19. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  24. She's very handy with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — for digging
  2. date — on the calendar
  3. stock — goods
  4. drill — the tool
  5. date — on the calendar
  6. hand — part of the body
  7. drill — army training
  8. cell — in a prison
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. cell — a phone
  11. saw — the tool
  12. hand — help
  13. cell — in biology
  14. stock — a soup base
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. drill — a practice
  17. hand — in cards
  18. stock — shares
  19. saw — past of 'see'
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. cold — not warm
  22. cold — an illness
  23. date — the fruit
  24. saw — the tool

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