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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 fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  2. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  5. That must've been a ________________.
  6. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  7. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  8. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  9. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  12. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  13. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  16. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  17. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  21. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  22. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  23. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — the fish
  2. rush — to hurry
  3. spring — of water
  4. toast — bread
  5. rush — a thrill
  6. toast — the most admired
  7. toast — a drink to someone
  8. rush — hurry
  9. net — in sport
  10. spring — the season
  11. bass — low music
  12. bark — of a tree
  13. bass — the instrument
  14. cold — an illness
  15. dip — to sink
  16. dip — to dunk
  17. bark — to shout
  18. cold — not warm
  19. spring — a coil
  20. net — for catching
  21. bark — a dog's sound
  22. net — after costs
  23. dip — a sauce
  24. cold — the Cold War

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