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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 116 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 hit the back of the ________________.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  8. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  11. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  14. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  15. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  19. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  20. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  23. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. net — in sport
  2. net — after costs
  3. lash — an eyelash
  4. spring — a coil
  5. game — wild animals
  6. game — a match
  7. game — a kind of play
  8. wax — to grow
  9. spring — of water
  10. wax — for sculpting
  11. pitch — a sales talk
  12. bat — the animal
  13. wax — in the ear
  14. pitch — completely
  15. scale — in music
  16. spring — the season
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. pitch — a sports field
  19. net — for catching
  20. lash — to lash out
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. lash — a whip stroke
  23. scale — for weighing
  24. scale — size or range

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