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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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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: swing · game · drill · chair · degree · stock · content · race

  1. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  2. The ________________ market has crashed.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. David sat on the ________________.
  5. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  6. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  19. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  20. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  21. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  22. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  23. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  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. stock — goods
  2. stock — shares
  3. game — wild animals
  4. swing — to play on
  5. drill — army training
  6. swing — in golf
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. drill — a practice
  9. game — a match
  10. content — happy
  11. degree — an amount
  12. chair — a leader
  13. chair — to sit on
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. content — videos and posts
  16. drill — the tool
  17. degree — from a university
  18. chair — a professorship
  19. swing — music
  20. content — the amount
  21. race — a contest
  22. race — humankind
  23. race — the arms race
  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