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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. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  8. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  9. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  10. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  16. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  17. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. branch — of a bank
  3. tear — from crying
  4. capital — a city
  5. capital — money
  6. field — for sport
  7. cell — a phone
  8. chair — a professorship
  9. cell — in biology
  10. branch — a division
  11. shower — to wash
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. field — farmland
  14. tear — from crying
  15. chair — to sit on
  16. net — after costs
  17. net — in sport
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. tear — to rip
  20. chair — a leader
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. net — for catching
  23. shower — rain
  24. branch — of a tree

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