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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. Don't do anything ________________.
  13. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. There's no middle ________________.
  17. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  22. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  23. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. capital — money
  3. straw — to clutch at straws
  4. march — music
  5. tear — from crying
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. field — for sport
  10. rash — a series
  11. bat — the animal
  12. rash — hasty
  13. ground — crushed
  14. tear — from crying
  15. capital — a city
  16. ground — a position
  17. march — the month
  18. march — the month
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. rash — on the skin
  22. tear — to rip
  23. ground — the earth
  24. field — a subject

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