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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 124 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. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  4. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  5. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  6. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  12. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  18. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  21. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. We're on a ________________ here.

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

Answer key

  1. net — in sport
  2. net — after costs
  3. current — of water
  4. fan — to cool the air
  5. current — electric
  6. lash — a whip stroke
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. fan — a supporter
  9. cold — an illness
  10. wind — moving air
  11. lash — to lash out
  12. straw — dry grass
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. fan — a supporter
  15. cold — not warm
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. roll — a cake
  18. lash — an eyelash
  19. wind — moving air
  20. current — happening now
  21. roll — a list
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. net — for catching
  24. roll — on a roll

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