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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. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  9. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  10. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  11. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  12. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  18. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  19. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. lean — to bend
  3. hand — help
  4. toast — the most admired
  5. wind — moving air
  6. pitch — a sales talk
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. toast — bread
  9. lean — thin
  10. net — in sport
  11. pitch — a sports field
  12. net — for catching
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. scale — for weighing
  15. shower — to wash
  16. pitch — completely
  17. scale — size or range
  18. toast — a drink to someone
  19. lean — to rest against
  20. hand — in cards
  21. wind — moving air
  22. scale — in music
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. shower — rain

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