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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 116 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 information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  2. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  10. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  15. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  16. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  23. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  24. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.

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

Answer key

  1. file — a document
  2. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. kid — to tease
  5. capital — a city
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. race — a contest
  8. kid — child
  9. scale — size or range
  10. scale — in music
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. race — the arms race
  13. file — a tool
  14. kick — a thrill
  15. scale — for weighing
  16. fork — a garden tool
  17. file — a line of people
  18. race — humankind
  19. kick — in football
  20. capital — money
  21. mine — for digging
  22. kick — with a leg
  23. fork — in a road
  24. fork — to eat with

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