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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. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  6. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  7. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  13. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  14. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  15. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  18. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  19. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. fan — a supporter
  4. cold — an illness
  5. band — a rubber band
  6. band — a music group
  7. squash — the vegetable
  8. file — a tool
  9. capital — money
  10. pit — in a race
  11. file — a line of people
  12. pit — a hole
  13. pit — a fruit stone
  14. fan — a supporter
  15. perch — the fish
  16. capital — a city
  17. squash — to crush
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. squash — the sport
  20. cold — not warm
  21. band — a ring
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. file — a document
  24. perch — for a bird

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