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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 116 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. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  2. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  9. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  10. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  11. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  12. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  13. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  14. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  19. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  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. net — for catching
  2. bass — the fish
  3. spring — the season
  4. lie — an untruth
  5. net — after costs
  6. spring — a coil
  7. land — to come down
  8. lie — an untruth
  9. land — a country
  10. bass — the instrument
  11. track — a song
  12. track — a path
  13. bass — low music
  14. net — in sport
  15. clip — a video
  16. cold — an illness
  17. clip — to cut
  18. track — to keep track
  19. land — ground
  20. cold — not warm
  21. lie — to recline
  22. clip — for paper
  23. spring — of water
  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