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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: land · court · mine · net · fan · pound · dip · cold

  1. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  7. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  8. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  9. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  10. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  16. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  17. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  18. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  21. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  22. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  23. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. land — ground
  3. court — of a king
  4. court — for sport
  5. net — after costs
  6. dip — a sauce
  7. net — for catching
  8. fan — a supporter
  9. dip — to dunk
  10. mine — belonging to me
  11. cold — an illness
  12. land — to come down
  13. court — of law
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. pound — a weight
  16. pound — to hit hard
  17. land — a country
  18. pound — for dogs
  19. cold — not warm
  20. net — in sport
  21. mine — an explosive
  22. fan — to cool the air
  23. dip — to sink
  24. mine — for digging

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