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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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. The ________________ market has crashed.
  6. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  9. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  13. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  14. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  15. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  16. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  20. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  21. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  22. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  23. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. band — a ring
  3. rock — to move gently
  4. spring — of water
  5. stock — shares
  6. stock — goods
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. chest — a box
  9. rock — music
  10. spring — the season
  11. net — for catching
  12. rock — a stone
  13. chest — of your body
  14. face — to confront
  15. band — a music group
  16. stock — a soup base
  17. band — a rubber band
  18. spring — a coil
  19. net — in sport
  20. face — to point toward
  21. face — part of the head
  22. chest — of your body
  23. cell — a phone
  24. cell — in biology

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