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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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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: cell · club · hand · game · net · spring · wax · perch

  1. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. He was locked up in a ________________.
  6. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  7. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. That was a fun ________________.
  11. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. wax — for sculpting
  4. hand — help
  5. cell — in a prison
  6. club — a group
  7. club — for dancing
  8. game — wild animals
  9. spring — the season
  10. game — a match
  11. wax — to grow
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. hand — part of the body
  14. spring — a coil
  15. cell — a phone
  16. hand — in cards
  17. net — for catching
  18. net — in sport
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. perch — for a bird
  21. spring — of water
  22. perch — the fish
  23. cell — in biology
  24. club — for golf

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