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

  1. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. We're on a ________________ here.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  16. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  17. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  18. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. can — a tin
  2. field — for sport
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. can — to be able to
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. straw — to clutch at straws
  7. capital — a city
  8. roll — a list
  9. content — happy
  10. content — the amount
  11. cold — an illness
  12. roll — on a roll
  13. field — a subject
  14. capital — money
  15. band — a ring
  16. roll — a cake
  17. can — a tin
  18. band — a music group
  19. field — farmland
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. band — a rubber band
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. straw — dry grass
  24. cold — not warm

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