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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. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  4. The ball is in your ________________.
  5. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  11. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  19. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. spring — the season
  3. tube — in a tire
  4. court — for sport
  5. field — a subject
  6. court — of a king
  7. court — of law
  8. clip — a video
  9. clip — for paper
  10. field — farmland
  11. mark — a grade
  12. field — for sport
  13. mine — for digging
  14. clip — to cut
  15. mark — a trace
  16. spring — a coil
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. tube — a container
  19. mark — to pay attention
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. tube — the underground
  23. spring — of water
  24. capital — money

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