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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 · clip · stock · ground · pitcher · rest · bark · mine

  1. The ________________ market has crashed.
  2. There's no middle ________________.
  3. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  4. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  8. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  9. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. He is an ace ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  17. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  18. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  21. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — shares
  2. ground — a position
  3. bark — to shout
  4. rest — a break
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. stock — goods
  8. rest — what's left
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. clip — for paper
  11. clip — to cut
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. mine — for digging
  14. pitcher — in baseball
  15. clip — a video
  16. rest — what's left
  17. ground — the earth
  18. stock — a soup base
  19. cold — not warm
  20. ground — crushed
  21. bark — a dog's sound
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. pitcher — a jug
  24. cold — an illness

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