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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. There's no middle ________________.
  3. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  13. Have you found your soul ________________?
  14. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. ground — a position
  3. net — in sport
  4. bat — the animal
  5. court — for sport
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. mate — a friend
  8. ground — the earth
  9. net — for catching
  10. court — of law
  11. cold — not warm
  12. mate — to breed
  13. mate — a partner
  14. chair — to sit on
  15. court — of a king
  16. chair — a professorship
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. content — the amount
  19. ground — crushed
  20. cold — an illness
  21. content — happy
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. chair — a leader

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