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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.

Words on the sheet
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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: wind · fan · mine · coach · cold · key · fork · net

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  6. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  7. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  8. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  13. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  14. Have you met the new head ________________?
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  17. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  18. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  19. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  20. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  21. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. This piece is in a major ________________.
  24. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. net — after costs
  3. cold — not warm
  4. wind — moving air
  5. net — for catching
  6. net — in sport
  7. mine — an explosive
  8. key — the most important part
  9. wind — moving air
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. fan — to cool the air
  13. mine — belonging to me
  14. coach — a trainer
  15. mine — for digging
  16. fork — a garden tool
  17. fork — in a road
  18. coach — a trainer
  19. fan — a supporter
  20. key — for a lock
  21. fork — to eat with
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. key — in music
  24. coach — pulled by horses

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