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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.

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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 · jam · net · cell · last · land · row · cold

  1. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  5. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  9. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  10. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  14. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  15. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  16. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  19. False peace will not ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  23. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. wind — moving air
  3. cold — an illness
  4. jam — a tight spot
  5. net — in sport
  6. land — a country
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. jam — in traffic
  9. jam — to spread on bread
  10. cell — in biology
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. wind — moving air
  13. cell — a phone
  14. net — for catching
  15. last — final
  16. last — finally
  17. cold — not warm
  18. land — ground
  19. last — to go on
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. row — to paddle
  22. row — a line
  23. wind — to turn a key
  24. land — to come down

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