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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. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  3. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  4. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  5. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  6. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  7. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  15. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  18. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. foot — a measure
  3. chair — to sit on
  4. foot — part of the body
  5. chair — a professorship
  6. stem — to come from
  7. chip — for betting
  8. chair — a leader
  9. shower — to wash
  10. field — a subject
  11. clip — a video
  12. capital — money
  13. field — farmland
  14. stem — a stem cell
  15. stem — of a plant
  16. capital — a city
  17. chip — to eat
  18. chip — in a computer
  19. shower — rain
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. clip — to cut
  22. foot — the bottom
  23. field — for sport
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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