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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 116 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 beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  17. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  18. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  24. There's a computer ________________ on the table.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. field — farmland
  3. lie — an untruth
  4. clip — to cut
  5. stem — to come from
  6. kid — child
  7. stem — of a plant
  8. clip — a video
  9. lie — an untruth
  10. capital — a city
  11. field — a subject
  12. can — a tin
  13. clip — for paper
  14. can — a tin
  15. field — for sport
  16. lie — to recline
  17. can — to be able to
  18. chip — to eat
  19. capital — money
  20. kid — to tease
  21. chip — for betting
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. stem — a stem cell
  24. chip — in a computer

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