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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. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  2. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  3. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  4. Did you ________________ the meat?
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  7. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  8. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. Have you met the new head ________________?
  23. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. coach — pulled by horses
  2. season — of the year
  3. bass — the fish
  4. season — to add flavour
  5. capital — a city
  6. tear — from crying
  7. season — in sport
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. tear — to rip
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. bass — low music
  13. field — a subject
  14. bass — the instrument
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. capital — money
  17. field — farmland
  18. kid — to tease
  19. mine — an explosive
  20. tear — from crying
  21. field — for sport
  22. coach — a trainer
  23. kid — child
  24. mine — for digging

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