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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. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  3. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  6. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  7. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  8. I'll be taking the ________________.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  11. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  17. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  18. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  21. It's one o'clock ________________.
  22. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  23. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  24. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. sharp — with an edge
  3. tube — a container
  4. file — a line of people
  5. mine — belonging to me
  6. race — a contest
  7. race — the arms race
  8. tube — the underground
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. fall — to drop
  11. mine — for digging
  12. file — a tool
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. net — for catching
  15. bat — the animal
  16. race — humankind
  17. fall — to drop
  18. tube — in a tire
  19. file — a document
  20. net — in sport
  21. sharp — exactly
  22. sharp — clever
  23. mine — an explosive
  24. fall — the season

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