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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. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  4. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. He is an ace ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  12. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  13. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  14. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  15. The King held a masked ________________.
  16. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  17. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. The polar ice ________________ is melting.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. field — for sport
  3. net — in sport
  4. cap — a lid
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. field — a subject
  7. pitcher — in baseball
  8. cold — not warm
  9. fork — to eat with
  10. field — farmland
  11. cap — a hat
  12. ball — a round shape
  13. pitcher — a jug
  14. pitcher — a jug
  15. ball — a dance
  16. fork — in a road
  17. fork — a garden tool
  18. file — a tool
  19. file — a line of people
  20. ball — a great time
  21. file — a document
  22. cold — an illness
  23. net — for catching
  24. cap — of ice

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