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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  4. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  11. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. The King held a masked ________________.
  15. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  20. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  21. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  22. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. We were using a ________________ as a seat.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. shower — to wash
  3. net — after costs
  4. face — to confront
  5. land — ground
  6. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. wind — moving air
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. ball — a great time
  11. rock — music
  12. land — to come down
  13. wind — moving air
  14. ball — a dance
  15. rock — to move gently
  16. shower — rain
  17. net — in sport
  18. kid — child
  19. ball — a round shape
  20. net — for catching
  21. face — part of the head
  22. face — to point toward
  23. land — a country
  24. rock — a stone

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