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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 116 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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  10. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  11. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  12. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  21. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  22. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  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. snap — to snap out of it
  2. wound — past of 'wind'
  3. field — a subject
  4. snap — to speak sharply
  5. field — for sport
  6. field — farmland
  7. capital — a city
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. face — to point toward
  10. snap — to click
  11. wound — an injury
  12. face — to confront
  13. land — a country
  14. degree — an amount
  15. land — to come down
  16. face — part of the head
  17. degree — temperature
  18. file — a tool
  19. file — a document
  20. land — ground
  21. degree — from a university
  22. wound — an injury
  23. file — a line of people
  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