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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 · degree · cold · land · safe · nail · rush · march

  1. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  2. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  8. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. He has no idea where the ________________ is.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. The ________________ went through the wall.
  16. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  17. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  23. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  24. That must've been a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. degree — an amount
  2. nail — for a hammer
  3. degree — from a university
  4. safe — out of danger
  5. land — ground
  6. cold — an illness
  7. nail — on a finger
  8. march — the month
  9. land — to come down
  10. stock — goods
  11. march — music
  12. stock — shares
  13. safe — a strongbox
  14. cold — not warm
  15. nail — for a hammer
  16. stock — a soup base
  17. march — the month
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. degree — temperature
  20. rush — hurry
  21. land — a country
  22. safe — out of danger
  23. rush — to hurry
  24. rush — a thrill

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