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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. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  2. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  3. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  4. The ________________ market has crashed.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  11. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  12. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  13. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  16. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. This piece is in a major ________________.
  21. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  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. key — the most important part
  2. row — to paddle
  3. cap — a lid
  4. stock — shares
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. cap — of ice
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. row — a line
  9. field — for sport
  10. cap — a hat
  11. key — for a lock
  12. stock — a soup base
  13. wake — to stop sleeping
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. stock — goods
  16. wake — before a funeral
  17. game — a match
  18. game — wild animals
  19. field — farmland
  20. key — in music
  21. wake — a trail
  22. capital — a city
  23. field — a subject
  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