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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. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. She's very handy with a ________________.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. He works in a ________________ mill.
  11. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  12. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  13. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  14. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  15. Don't do anything ________________.
  16. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  17. When are we going to ________________?
  18. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.

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

Answer key

  1. net — in sport
  2. net — after costs
  3. bat — the animal
  4. saw — the tool
  5. spring — of water
  6. rash — on the skin
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. land — ground
  10. saw — the tool
  11. fan — to cool the air
  12. hide — to keep secret
  13. hide — animal skin
  14. rash — a series
  15. rash — hasty
  16. net — for catching
  17. land — to come down
  18. fan — a supporter
  19. spring — a coil
  20. saw — past of 'see'
  21. spring — the season
  22. hide — to keep secret
  23. land — a country
  24. fan — a supporter

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