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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. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  3. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  4. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  12. The ball is in your ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  23. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. court — of a king
  3. firm — steady
  4. net — in sport
  5. spring — of water
  6. court — of law
  7. firm — decided
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. firm — a company
  10. cold — not warm
  11. racket — for tennis
  12. court — for sport
  13. cold — an illness
  14. field — for sport
  15. net — for catching
  16. spring — the season
  17. field — farmland
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. field — a subject
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. spring — a coil
  22. racket — a loud noise
  23. racket — for tennis
  24. straw — dry grass

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