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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. The ________________ went through the wall.
  2. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. Have you met the new head ________________?
  6. The ________________ market has crashed.
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. My father caught me by the ________________.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  14. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  20. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  24. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. nail — for a hammer
  2. coach — pulled by horses
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. hand — help
  5. coach — a trainer
  6. stock — shares
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. arm — part of the body
  9. field — farmland
  10. field — a subject
  11. spring — a coil
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. nail — for a hammer
  14. arm — part of the body
  15. capital — a city
  16. stock — goods
  17. capital — money
  18. field — for sport
  19. coach — a trainer
  20. arm — a part of something
  21. spring — the season
  22. hand — in cards
  23. nail — on a finger
  24. spring — of water

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