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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. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  3. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  6. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  7. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  10. The King held a masked ________________.
  11. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  12. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  15. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  16. I'll be taking the ________________.
  17. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. The ball is in your ________________.
  20. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  23. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  24. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. straw — to clutch at straws
  3. tube — in a tire
  4. cold — an illness
  5. straw — a straw man
  6. tube — a container
  7. net — for catching
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. court — of law
  10. ball — a dance
  11. dip — a sauce
  12. court — of a king
  13. cold — not warm
  14. net — in sport
  15. ball — a great time
  16. tube — the underground
  17. bark — a dog's sound
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. court — for sport
  20. dip — to sink
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. ball — a round shape
  23. dip — to dunk
  24. bark — to shout

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