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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 120 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. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. When was this ________________ built?
  13. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  18. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. It's one o'clock ________________.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — a place of worship
  2. capital — a city
  3. sharp — clever
  4. cell — a phone
  5. race — humankind
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. sharp — with an edge
  8. cell — in biology
  9. field — a subject
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. capital — money
  12. temple — a place of worship
  13. race — the arms race
  14. race — a contest
  15. stick — a piece of wood
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. stick — a piece of wood
  18. row — to paddle
  19. row — a line
  20. sharp — exactly
  21. field — farmland
  22. temple — side of the head
  23. field — for sport
  24. stick — to attach or keep to

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