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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  12. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  13. How do you ________________ your surname?
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. Did you ________________ the button?
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. I'll be taking the ________________.
  22. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  23. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. hand — in cards
  3. capital — a city
  4. file — a tool
  5. capital — money
  6. spell — magic
  7. file — a line of people
  8. spring — of water
  9. spring — a coil
  10. file — a document
  11. hand — help
  12. press — a publisher
  13. spell — letters
  14. spring — the season
  15. field — for sport
  16. press — to push
  17. field — a subject
  18. tube — a container
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. tube — the underground
  22. spell — a short time
  23. press — newspapers
  24. capital — a big letter

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