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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  12. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  13. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  24. The ball hit the back of the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. shower — to wash
  3. bat — the animal
  4. net — for catching
  5. wind — moving air
  6. shower — rain
  7. bore — gave birth
  8. last — final
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. bore — to drill
  12. spring — of water
  13. hand — in cards
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. last — finally
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. spring — a coil
  18. wind — moving air
  19. last — to go on
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. bore — to tire
  22. spring — the season
  23. hand — help
  24. net — in sport

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