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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 120 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. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  4. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  5. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  6. The ________________ market has crashed.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  12. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  13. David sat on the ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. He was locked up in a ________________.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  20. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  21. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  22. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  23. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — moving air
  2. net — after costs
  3. stock — goods
  4. kick — with a leg
  5. stock — a soup base
  6. stock — shares
  7. cell — a phone
  8. swing — music
  9. wind — moving air
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. net — in sport
  12. net — for catching
  13. swing — to play on
  14. cold — an illness
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. cold — not warm
  17. cell — in a prison
  18. cell — in biology
  19. snap — to speak sharply
  20. snap — to click
  21. swing — in golf
  22. kick — a thrill
  23. kick — in football
  24. wind — to turn a key

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