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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: stock · fall · land · wind · row · season · spell · field

  1. The ________________ market has crashed.
  2. Did you ________________ the meat?
  3. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  6. When are we going to ________________?
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  17. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  22. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  23. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — shares
  2. season — to add flavour
  3. field — for sport
  4. spell — letters
  5. season — in sport
  6. land — to come down
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. fall — to drop
  9. land — ground
  10. wind — moving air
  11. land — a country
  12. row — a line
  13. fall — the season
  14. field — a subject
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. spell — a short time
  17. season — of the year
  18. row — to paddle
  19. wind — to turn a key
  20. wind — moving air
  21. stock — goods
  22. fall — to drop
  23. spell — magic
  24. field — farmland

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