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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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468
Word bank
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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. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  4. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  7. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  8. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  9. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  10. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  14. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  17. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  18. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  19. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  20. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  21. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. cold — an illness
  3. trunk — of a car
  4. branch — of a bank
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. snap — to snap out of it
  7. branch — a division
  8. snap — to click
  9. mine — an explosive
  10. fork — to eat with
  11. wind — moving air
  12. wind — moving air
  13. branch — of a tree
  14. snap — to speak sharply
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. net — for catching
  17. trunk — of an elephant
  18. fork — a garden tool
  19. mine — for digging
  20. fork — in a road
  21. net — in sport
  22. cold — not warm
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. cold — the Cold War

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