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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. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. The ________________ went through the wall.
  9. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. Don't do anything ________________.
  14. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  19. Did you ________________ the meat?
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  23. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  24. Spring is a pleasant ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. nail — for a hammer
  2. net — after costs
  3. season — in sport
  4. spring — a coil
  5. cold — not warm
  6. clip — a video
  7. capital — money
  8. nail — for a hammer
  9. rash — on the skin
  10. cold — an illness
  11. nail — on a finger
  12. capital — a city
  13. rash — hasty
  14. net — for catching
  15. clip — for paper
  16. clip — to cut
  17. spring — of water
  18. spring — the season
  19. season — to add flavour
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. net — in sport
  23. rash — a series
  24. season — of the year

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