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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. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  2. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  3. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  4. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  5. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  6. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  7. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  8. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  9. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  13. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  14. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  15. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  16. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  21. The ________________ took off on time.
  22. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  23. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  24. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.

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

Answer key

  1. squash — the sport
  2. wake — to stop sleeping
  3. shower — rain
  4. net — after costs
  5. current — electric
  6. present — a gift
  7. plane — in geometry
  8. present — the time now
  9. current — of water
  10. cold — an illness
  11. cold — not warm
  12. net — for catching
  13. wake — a trail
  14. shower — to wash
  15. wake — before a funeral
  16. present — there
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. squash — the vegetable
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. squash — to crush
  21. plane — an aircraft
  22. current — happening now
  23. net — in sport
  24. plane — a tool

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