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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. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. The light ________________ burned out.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  9. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  10. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  13. Don't do anything ________________.
  14. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. I've got to change the light ________________.
  19. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  20. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  21. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  22. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  23. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  24. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. net — in sport
  3. snap — to click
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. chest — a box
  6. bulb — for light
  7. mine — for digging
  8. snap — to snap out of it
  9. perch — for a bird
  10. snap — to speak sharply
  11. net — for catching
  12. chest — of your body
  13. rash — hasty
  14. mine — an explosive
  15. land — to come down
  16. perch — the fish
  17. land — a country
  18. bulb — for light
  19. land — ground
  20. rash — a series
  21. rash — on the skin
  22. chest — of your body
  23. bulb — of a plant
  24. perch — for a bird

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