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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. The ball is in your ________________.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  10. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. Have you settled on a ________________?
  13. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  18. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  21. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  24. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. land — ground
  3. cold — not warm
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. spell — letters
  6. net — after costs
  7. land — a country
  8. court — of a king
  9. present — the time now
  10. net — for catching
  11. land — to come down
  12. date — on the calendar
  13. present — a gift
  14. cold — an illness
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. court — of law
  17. date — on the calendar
  18. date — the fruit
  19. spell — a short time
  20. present — there
  21. fan — to cool the air
  22. spell — magic
  23. net — in sport
  24. fan — a supporter

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