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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. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  10. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  16. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  21. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  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. row — a line
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. row — to paddle
  4. capital — money
  5. land — ground
  6. land — a country
  7. craft — a handicraft
  8. field — for sport
  9. tube — a container
  10. tube — in a tire
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. face — to confront
  13. field — farmland
  14. land — to come down
  15. face — part of the head
  16. craft — boats
  17. capital — a city
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. cold — an illness
  20. face — to point toward
  21. craft — a skill
  22. tube — the underground
  23. cold — not warm
  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