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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. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  2. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  3. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. False peace will not ________________.
  12. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  15. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  16. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  20. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  21. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  22. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  23. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. deal — an agreement
  2. net — in sport
  3. craft — boats
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. last — final
  6. field — for sport
  7. field — a subject
  8. chest — of your body
  9. field — farmland
  10. chest — of your body
  11. last — to go on
  12. net — for catching
  13. chest — a box
  14. band — a ring
  15. deal — to handle
  16. craft — a skill
  17. capital — money
  18. capital — a city
  19. craft — a handicraft
  20. deal — a big deal
  21. net — after costs
  22. band — a music group
  23. capital — a big letter
  24. last — finally

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