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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. I've got to change the light ________________.
  3. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  4. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  5. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. The ball is in your ________________.
  16. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. The light ________________ burned out.
  22. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. bulb — for light
  3. net — in sport
  4. lie — an untruth
  5. court — of law
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. lie — an untruth
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. court — of a king
  10. current — electric
  11. net — for catching
  12. cold — not warm
  13. current — of water
  14. field — for sport
  15. court — for sport
  16. bulb — of a plant
  17. cold — an illness
  18. field — a subject
  19. bat — the animal
  20. field — farmland
  21. bulb — for light
  22. lie — to recline
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. current — happening now

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