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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. Where did you ________________ them?
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  4. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  5. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  6. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  13. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  16. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  17. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  20. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. He was locked up in a ________________.
  23. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  24. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. mug — to rob
  2. net — after costs
  3. pound — to hit hard
  4. perch — the fish
  5. cell — in biology
  6. net — for catching
  7. field — a subject
  8. field — farmland
  9. mug — a face
  10. cell — a phone
  11. field — for sport
  12. wax — for sculpting
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. clip — a video
  15. pound — for dogs
  16. wax — to grow
  17. wax — in the ear
  18. clip — for paper
  19. net — in sport
  20. mug — a cup
  21. clip — to cut
  22. cell — in a prison
  23. pound — a weight
  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