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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

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

  1. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  2. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. club — for golf
  3. last — final
  4. capital — money
  5. last — to go on
  6. fan — to cool the air
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. club — a group
  9. clip — a video
  10. capital — a city
  11. fan — a supporter
  12. clip — to cut
  13. field — a subject
  14. clip — for paper
  15. field — farmland
  16. last — finally
  17. field — for sport
  18. club — for dancing

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