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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. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  16. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. The King held a masked ________________.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  21. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  24. David sat on the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. clip — for paper
  3. clip — a video
  4. cold — not warm
  5. field — for sport
  6. swing — in golf
  7. hand — help
  8. clip — to cut
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. capital — money
  11. hand — in cards
  12. bowl — a football final
  13. cold — an illness
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. ball — a round shape
  16. ball — a great time
  17. field — a subject
  18. ball — a dance
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. swing — music
  21. bowl — to roll
  22. field — farmland
  23. bowl — a dish
  24. swing — to play on

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