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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. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  3. Don't do anything ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  8. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  17. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  20. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  21. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. Have you found your soul ________________?
  24. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. face — to confront
  3. rash — hasty
  4. cold — not warm
  5. net — in sport
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. mate — to breed
  8. track — a song
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. cold — an illness
  11. net — for catching
  12. face — part of the head
  13. mine — for digging
  14. mate — a friend
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. rash — on the skin
  17. track — a path
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. track — to keep track
  20. straw — to clutch at straws
  21. rash — a series
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. mate — a partner
  24. face — to point toward

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