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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. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  5. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  6. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  7. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  8. Have you met the new head ________________?
  9. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  14. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  15. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  19. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  20. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  21. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  22. The ________________ took off on time.
  23. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. net — in sport
  3. cold — not warm
  4. toast — a drink to someone
  5. lash — a whip stroke
  6. scale — for weighing
  7. scale — size or range
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. hand — help
  10. cold — an illness
  11. toast — bread
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. toast — the most admired
  14. scale — in music
  15. lash — to lash out
  16. hand — in cards
  17. net — for catching
  18. coach — a trainer
  19. lash — an eyelash
  20. plane — in geometry
  21. plane — a tool
  22. plane — an aircraft
  23. coach — pulled by horses
  24. hand — part of the body

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