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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 · hand · content · mate · club · race · fork · capital

  1. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  2. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  3. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  4. The ________________ market has crashed.
  5. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  6. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  7. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  8. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  9. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  10. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  11. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  12. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  13. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  14. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  22. Have you found your soul ________________?
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — goods
  2. hand — part of the body
  3. club — for golf
  4. stock — shares
  5. club — a group
  6. race — a contest
  7. content — happy
  8. hand — help
  9. mate — to breed
  10. stock — a soup base
  11. mate — a friend
  12. club — for dancing
  13. fork — in a road
  14. race — the arms race
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. hand — in cards
  17. fork — a garden tool
  18. content — the amount
  19. capital — money
  20. capital — a city
  21. fork — to eat with
  22. mate — a partner
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. race — humankind

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