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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. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. She's very handy with a ________________.
  8. He works in a ________________ mill.
  9. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  10. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  13. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  18. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. bass — the instrument
  4. game — a match
  5. land — to come down
  6. game — wild animals
  7. saw — the tool
  8. saw — the tool
  9. face — to confront
  10. saw — past of 'see'
  11. spring — the season
  12. bass — low music
  13. face — part of the head
  14. land — ground
  15. bass — the fish
  16. land — a country
  17. net — in sport
  18. face — to point toward
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. hand — help
  21. net — for catching
  22. hand — in cards
  23. spring — of water
  24. spring — a coil

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