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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. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  2. That must've been a ________________.
  3. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  10. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  11. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  14. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  15. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  18. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — a hat
  2. rush — a thrill
  3. staff — employees
  4. field — a subject
  5. clip — a video
  6. clip — for paper
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. field — farmland
  9. pound — for dogs
  10. cap — a lid
  11. staff — a stick
  12. clip — to cut
  13. cap — of ice
  14. rush — hurry
  15. pound — to hit hard
  16. spring — a coil
  17. hand — help
  18. pound — a weight
  19. spring — of water
  20. rush — to hurry
  21. hand — in cards
  22. spring — the season
  23. staff — employees
  24. field — for sport

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