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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 116 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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  3. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. The ball is in your ________________.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  12. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  17. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  18. The ball hit the back of the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. pass — a permit
  3. degree — an amount
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. hand — help
  6. court — for sport
  7. degree — from a university
  8. bark — a dog's sound
  9. hand — in cards
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. degree — temperature
  12. net — for catching
  13. court — of law
  14. pass — to spend time
  15. court — of a king
  16. bark — to shout
  17. pass — to succeed
  18. net — in sport

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