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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. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  5. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  6. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  7. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  8. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  11. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  12. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  13. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  14. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  17. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  18. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  19. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  20. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. craft — boats
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. net — for catching
  5. craft — a skill
  6. prune — to trim
  7. bark — of a tree
  8. net — in sport
  9. clip — to cut
  10. fall — to drop
  11. bark — to shout
  12. bark — a dog's sound
  13. pit — in a race
  14. prune — the fruit
  15. clip — for paper
  16. fall — the season
  17. pit — a hole
  18. pit — a fruit stone
  19. prune — to trim
  20. craft — a handicraft
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. bat — the animal
  23. fall — to drop
  24. clip — a video

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