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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. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  2. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. I'll be taking the ________________.
  7. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. My father caught me by the ________________.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  13. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  17. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  18. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  19. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  20. That must've been a ________________.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. arm — part of the body
  2. arm — a part of something
  3. capital — a city
  4. mine — for digging
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. tube — the underground
  7. tube — in a tire
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. court — for sport
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. rush — hurry
  13. capital — money
  14. cold — not warm
  15. field — farmland
  16. rush — to hurry
  17. court — of a king
  18. tube — a container
  19. court — of law
  20. rush — a thrill
  21. field — a subject
  22. mine — belonging to me
  23. field — for sport
  24. cold — an illness

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