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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. When are we going to ________________?
  3. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  6. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  7. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  11. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  12. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  13. False peace will not ________________.
  14. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  15. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  16. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  19. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  20. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  21. Did you ________________ the meat?
  22. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. The ball hit the back of the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. land — to come down
  3. season — of the year
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. chair — to sit on
  6. cap — of ice
  7. branch — of a bank
  8. cold — an illness
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. season — in sport
  11. chair — a leader
  12. land — a country
  13. last — to go on
  14. last — final
  15. cap — a hat
  16. land — ground
  17. cold — not warm
  18. last — finally
  19. branch — a division
  20. cap — a lid
  21. season — to add flavour
  22. branch — of a tree
  23. net — for catching
  24. net — in sport

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