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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: net · land · current · shower · band · stock · game · clip

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  3. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  4. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  7. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  22. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. band — a music group
  3. stock — goods
  4. clip — for paper
  5. game — a match
  6. net — in sport
  7. net — after costs
  8. net — for catching
  9. current — of water
  10. band — a ring
  11. current — electric
  12. stock — shares
  13. land — a country
  14. clip — to cut
  15. shower — rain
  16. clip — a video
  17. shower — to wash
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. stock — a soup base
  22. current — happening now
  23. land — to come down
  24. game — wild animals

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