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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. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. The King held a masked ________________.
  7. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  8. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  9. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  10. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  13. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  17. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  18. The ________________ market has crashed.
  19. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  20. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  21. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  22. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  23. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. ball — a great time
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. hand — help
  5. net — after costs
  6. ball — a dance
  7. pit — a fruit stone
  8. pit — in a race
  9. pit — a hole
  10. scale — in music
  11. net — for catching
  12. scale — for weighing
  13. patient — a sick person
  14. hand — in cards
  15. land — a country
  16. stock — goods
  17. patient — calm and waiting
  18. stock — shares
  19. patient — a sick person
  20. net — in sport
  21. ball — a round shape
  22. scale — size or range
  23. stock — a soup base
  24. land — to come down

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