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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. How do you ________________ your surname?
  2. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  3. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  6. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  7. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  11. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  12. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  18. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  19. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  20. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  21. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — letters
  2. hide — to keep secret
  3. net — after costs
  4. kid — to tease
  5. foot — part of the body
  6. hide — to keep secret
  7. fork — a garden tool
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. kid — child
  10. foot — the bottom
  11. spell — magic
  12. fork — to eat with
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. net — for catching
  16. mine — for digging
  17. net — in sport
  18. spell — a short time
  19. foot — a measure
  20. hide — animal skin
  21. fork — in a road
  22. degree — an amount
  23. degree — from a university
  24. degree — temperature

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