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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. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  5. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  6. She's very handy with a ________________.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. He works in a ________________ mill.
  12. There's no middle ________________.
  13. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  20. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  24. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. ground — crushed
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. spell — a short time
  6. saw — the tool
  7. game — a match
  8. craft — a handicraft
  9. wind — moving air
  10. spell — letters
  11. saw — the tool
  12. ground — a position
  13. net — for catching
  14. game — wild animals
  15. saw — past of 'see'
  16. capital — a city
  17. net — in sport
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. spell — magic
  20. craft — boats
  21. wind — moving air
  22. capital — money
  23. ground — the earth
  24. craft — a skill

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