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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. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  2. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  3. I'll be taking the ________________.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  7. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  10. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  11. He is an ace ________________.
  12. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  15. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  23. We're on a ________________ here.
  24. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. tube — a container
  3. tube — the underground
  4. field — for sport
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. toast — a drink to someone
  7. patient — calm and waiting
  8. field — farmland
  9. toast — the most admired
  10. roll — a cake
  11. pitcher — in baseball
  12. tube — in a tire
  13. clip — to cut
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. capital — money
  16. capital — a city
  17. clip — a video
  18. roll — a list
  19. field — a subject
  20. patient — a sick person
  21. clip — for paper
  22. toast — bread
  23. roll — on a roll
  24. pitcher — a jug

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