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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 120 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. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  2. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  3. He is an ace ________________.
  4. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. It's one o'clock ________________.
  9. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. Don't do anything ________________.
  12. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  13. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  14. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  15. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  18. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  19. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  22. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. net — for catching
  3. pitcher — in baseball
  4. sharp — clever
  5. cold — an illness
  6. wave — a sudden rise
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. sharp — exactly
  9. net — after costs
  10. spring — a coil
  11. rash — hasty
  12. net — in sport
  13. bank — for money
  14. rash — on the skin
  15. wave — of the sea
  16. cold — not warm
  17. pitcher — a jug
  18. bank — for money
  19. wave — with your hand
  20. spring — of water
  21. sharp — with an edge
  22. rash — a series
  23. spring — the season
  24. bank — of a river

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