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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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  3. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  4. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. David sat on the ________________.
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. I've got to change the light ________________.
  11. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  12. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  13. The light ________________ burned out.
  14. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  18. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  23. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. net — for catching
  3. net — after costs
  4. net — in sport
  5. shower — to wash
  6. cold — not warm
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. swing — to play on
  9. snap — to click
  10. bulb — for light
  11. branch — a division
  12. branch — of a bank
  13. bulb — for light
  14. branch — of a tree
  15. cold — an illness
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. bulb — of a plant
  18. snap — to snap out of it
  19. shower — rain
  20. swing — music
  21. last — to go on
  22. last — finally
  23. swing — in golf
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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