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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. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  4. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  13. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  14. The ball is in your ________________.
  15. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  16. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  19. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. He took the fish out of the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pass — to succeed
  2. net — after costs
  3. row — to paddle
  4. row — a line
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. pass — to spend time
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. cold — an illness
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. bat — the animal
  12. club — for golf
  13. club — a group
  14. court — for sport
  15. club — for dancing
  16. cell — a phone
  17. cell — in biology
  18. court — of law
  19. pass — a permit
  20. court — of a king
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. net — in sport
  23. cold — not warm
  24. net — for catching

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