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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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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. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  5. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  6. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  11. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  12. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  15. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  22. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. Should I buy a wireless ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. net — after costs
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. wake — before a funeral
  5. straw — dry grass
  6. mouse — the animal
  7. land — ground
  8. kid — to tease
  9. land — a country
  10. net — for catching
  11. net — in sport
  12. wake — a trail
  13. kid — child
  14. mouse — the animal
  15. wave — a sudden rise
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. wave — with your hand
  18. land — to come down
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. row — to paddle
  21. wave — of the sea
  22. wake — to stop sleeping
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. mouse — for a computer

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