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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: file · hand · pop · cold · field · prune · stock · kick

  1. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  2. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  3. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  4. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  5. We're almost out of ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. The ________________ market has crashed.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  11. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. You don't need to ________________ round.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  23. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  24. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — part of the body
  2. kick — in football
  3. kick — with a leg
  4. kick — a thrill
  5. pop — soda
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. stock — shares
  8. field — a subject
  9. field — farmland
  10. prune — the fruit
  11. file — a tool
  12. file — a line of people
  13. pop — to visit
  14. cold — an illness
  15. prune — to trim
  16. cold — not warm
  17. file — a document
  18. hand — in cards
  19. stock — goods
  20. hand — help
  21. field — for sport
  22. prune — to trim
  23. stock — a soup base
  24. pop — music

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