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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. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  2. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  6. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  12. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  13. David sat on the ________________.
  14. He was locked up in a ________________.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — an explosive
  2. foot — a measure
  3. capital — a city
  4. cell — a phone
  5. scale — in music
  6. swing — in golf
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. cold — not warm
  9. mine — belonging to me
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. swing — music
  12. foot — the bottom
  13. swing — to play on
  14. cell — in a prison
  15. mine — for digging
  16. cell — in biology
  17. cold — an illness
  18. foot — part of the body
  19. file — a line of people
  20. capital — money
  21. scale — size or range
  22. file — a tool
  23. scale — for weighing
  24. file — a document

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