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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. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  6. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  7. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  14. It's one o'clock ________________.
  15. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  16. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  17. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  18. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  19. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  20. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  21. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. staff — employees
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. field — a subject
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. perch — the fish
  6. foot — a measure
  7. sharp — with an edge
  8. field — farmland
  9. field — for sport
  10. staff — employees
  11. cold — an illness
  12. cold — not warm
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. sharp — exactly
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. foot — part of the body
  17. lean — to bend
  18. sharp — clever
  19. foot — the bottom
  20. staff — a stick
  21. lean — thin
  22. capital — money
  23. lean — to rest against
  24. capital — a city

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