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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. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  5. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  8. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  9. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. You don't need to ________________ round.
  12. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  13. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  14. The ________________ market has crashed.
  15. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  16. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  22. We're almost out of ________________.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. What was your ________________ profit last year?

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. net — for catching
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. season — in sport
  5. wax — to grow
  6. capital — money
  7. stock — goods
  8. wound — an injury
  9. pop — music
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. pop — to visit
  12. wax — in the ear
  13. wax — for sculpting
  14. stock — shares
  15. stock — a soup base
  16. net — in sport
  17. bat — the animal
  18. wound — past of 'wind'
  19. capital — a city
  20. wound — an injury
  21. season — of the year
  22. pop — soda
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. net — after costs

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