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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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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. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. We're almost out of ________________.
  5. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  13. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. You don't need to ________________ round.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. bank — for money
  3. wound — an injury
  4. pop — soda
  5. row — a quarrel
  6. field — farmland
  7. bank — of a river
  8. row — a line
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. field — for sport
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. bank — for money
  13. pop — music
  14. perch — the fish
  15. capital — money
  16. file — a tool
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. capital — a city
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. file — a document
  21. pop — to visit
  22. row — to paddle
  23. wound — an injury
  24. file — a line of people

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