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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. When are we going to ________________?
  2. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  3. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  4. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  7. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  13. The ________________ went through the wall.
  14. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  19. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  20. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  21. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  22. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  23. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. land — to come down
  2. row — to paddle
  3. can — a tin
  4. nail — on a finger
  5. wind — moving air
  6. nail — for a hammer
  7. net — after costs
  8. clip — for paper
  9. cold — an illness
  10. row — a line
  11. clip — a video
  12. can — to be able to
  13. nail — for a hammer
  14. wind — moving air
  15. land — a country
  16. cold — not warm
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. net — in sport
  19. row — a quarrel
  20. clip — to cut
  21. net — for catching
  22. land — ground
  23. can — a tin
  24. wind — to turn a key

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