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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. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  2. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  5. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  11. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  12. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  17. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  18. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  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. rock — music
  2. file — a document
  3. capital — a city
  4. dip — to sink
  5. rock — to move gently
  6. file — a line of people
  7. shower — to wash
  8. spring — a coil
  9. capital — money
  10. dip — to dunk
  11. dip — a sauce
  12. patient — a sick person
  13. file — a tool
  14. march — the month
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. patient — calm and waiting
  17. patient — a sick person
  18. rock — a stone
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. spring — the season
  21. march — the month
  22. march — music
  23. shower — rain
  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