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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 120 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. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  3. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  4. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  5. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  8. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  15. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  16. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  17. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  18. It's one o'clock ________________.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. There's no middle ________________.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. squash — to crush
  3. ground — the earth
  4. net — in sport
  5. squash — the sport
  6. land — ground
  7. sharp — clever
  8. squash — the vegetable
  9. capital — money
  10. capital — a city
  11. land — to come down
  12. ground — crushed
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. trunk — of a car
  15. net — for catching
  16. trunk — of an elephant
  17. trunk — of a tree
  18. sharp — exactly
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. sharp — with an edge
  21. land — a country
  22. ground — a position
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. bat — the animal

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