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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 is in your ________________.
  2. Did you ________________ the meat?
  3. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  9. I'll be taking the ________________.
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. There's no middle ________________.
  12. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  13. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  19. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  22. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. Add some ________________ pepper to it.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. season — to add flavour
  3. net — after costs
  4. wind — moving air
  5. game — a match
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. wind — moving air
  8. tube — in a tire
  9. tube — the underground
  10. court — of a king
  11. ground — a position
  12. season — in sport
  13. net — in sport
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. court — of law
  16. field — farmland
  17. field — for sport
  18. tube — a container
  19. net — for catching
  20. field — a subject
  21. season — of the year
  22. ground — the earth
  23. game — wild animals
  24. ground — crushed

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