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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. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  2. I'll be taking the ________________.
  3. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  4. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  5. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  6. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  12. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  17. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  18. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  24. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.

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

Answer key

  1. staff — employees
  2. tube — the underground
  3. object — to protest
  4. squash — the vegetable
  5. squash — the sport
  6. net — in sport
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. net — for catching
  9. squash — to crush
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. staff — a stick
  12. net — after costs
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. wound — an injury
  15. mine — for digging
  16. object — an aim
  17. tube — in a tire
  18. tube — a container
  19. cold — an illness
  20. wound — an injury
  21. cold — not warm
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. staff — employees
  24. object — a thing

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