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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 120 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. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  3. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  4. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  7. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  8. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. bowl — a football final
  3. net — for catching
  4. net — in sport
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. bowl — a dish
  7. prune — to trim
  8. prune — to trim
  9. chest — of your body
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. chest — a box
  12. land — ground
  13. hand — help
  14. land — to come down
  15. land — a country
  16. mine — for digging
  17. hand — in cards
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. bowl — to roll
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. bat — the animal
  24. chest — of your body

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