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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 116 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. David sat on the ________________.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  4. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  5. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  6. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  9. When are we going to ________________?
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  18. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  19. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — to play on
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. net — after costs
  4. net — in sport
  5. swing — music
  6. bore — to drill
  7. land — ground
  8. bore — gave birth
  9. land — to come down
  10. cold — not warm
  11. capital — money
  12. racket — for tennis
  13. cold — an illness
  14. spring — a coil
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. capital — a city
  17. racket — for tennis
  18. bore — to tire
  19. net — for catching
  20. land — a country
  21. racket — a loud noise
  22. spring — the season
  23. swing — in golf
  24. spring — of water

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