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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. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  6. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  7. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  12. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  13. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  14. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  21. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  22. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. The elephant has a huge ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. toast — the most admired
  2. capital — a city
  3. file — a tool
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. staff — employees
  6. game — wild animals
  7. file — a document
  8. file — a line of people
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. capital — money
  11. trunk — of a car
  12. scale — in music
  13. staff — a stick
  14. toast — bread
  15. scale — size or range
  16. game — a match
  17. spring — the season
  18. staff — employees
  19. spring — a coil
  20. scale — for weighing
  21. trunk — of a tree
  22. toast — a drink to someone
  23. spring — of water
  24. trunk — of an elephant

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