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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. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  10. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  11. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  12. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  15. Don't do anything ________________.
  16. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  17. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  18. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  22. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. can — to be able to
  3. clip — for paper
  4. field — farmland
  5. cold — not warm
  6. can — a tin
  7. clip — a video
  8. field — for sport
  9. track — to keep track
  10. can — a tin
  11. vault — an arched ceiling
  12. net — in sport
  13. field — a subject
  14. track — a path
  15. rash — hasty
  16. vault — a safe
  17. vault — in gymnastics
  18. rash — on the skin
  19. clip — to cut
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. track — a song
  22. net — for catching
  23. cold — an illness
  24. rash — a series

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