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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: prune · shower · court · march · cap · degree · net · stock

  1. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  2. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  3. The ball is in your ________________.
  4. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  5. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  11. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  12. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  13. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  14. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. The ________________ market has crashed.
  23. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  24. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — goods
  2. prune — the fruit
  3. court — for sport
  4. net — after costs
  5. cap — of ice
  6. court — of a king
  7. march — music
  8. shower — to wash
  9. march — the month
  10. cap — a lid
  11. court — of law
  12. prune — to trim
  13. net — for catching
  14. cap — a hat
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. prune — to trim
  17. stock — a soup base
  18. degree — from a university
  19. shower — rain
  20. net — in sport
  21. degree — temperature
  22. stock — shares
  23. degree — an amount
  24. march — the month

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