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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. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  11. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  12. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  13. She's very handy with a ________________.
  14. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  19. He works in a ________________ mill.
  20. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  21. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. net — after costs
  3. patient — calm and waiting
  4. mine — for digging
  5. net — in sport
  6. file — a line of people
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. file — a tool
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. content — happy
  11. straw — a straw man
  12. saw — past of 'see'
  13. saw — the tool
  14. net — for catching
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. file — a document
  17. capital — money
  18. patient — a sick person
  19. saw — the tool
  20. mine — an explosive
  21. patient — a sick person
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. capital — a city

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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