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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 120 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. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  3. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  6. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. This piece is in a major ________________.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. key — for a lock
  3. present — the time now
  4. march — the month
  5. present — a gift
  6. key — the most important part
  7. capital — money
  8. present — there
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. march — music
  11. key — in music
  12. field — farmland
  13. field — a subject
  14. capital — a city
  15. wind — moving air
  16. shower — rain
  17. shower — to wash
  18. file — a tool
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. march — the month
  21. wind — moving air
  22. file — a document
  23. file — a line of people
  24. capital — a big letter

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