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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's quite ________________, isn't he?
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  9. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  10. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  14. You don't need to ________________ round.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. We're almost out of ________________.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  21. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  22. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  23. It's one o'clock ________________.
  24. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — clever
  2. capital — money
  3. field — a subject
  4. capital — a city
  5. wind — moving air
  6. sharp — with an edge
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. stem — to come from
  9. kick — with a leg
  10. stem — a stem cell
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. chest — a box
  13. kick — a thrill
  14. pop — to visit
  15. wind — moving air
  16. pop — music
  17. field — for sport
  18. pop — soda
  19. field — farmland
  20. chest — of your body
  21. kick — in football
  22. chest — of your body
  23. sharp — exactly
  24. stem — of a plant

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