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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. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  2. Have you settled on a ________________?
  3. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. Did you ________________ the meat?
  6. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  9. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. Don't do anything ________________.
  13. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  14. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  19. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. wind — to turn a key
  2. date — on the calendar
  3. season — of the year
  4. capital — money
  5. season — to add flavour
  6. clip — a video
  7. clip — for paper
  8. date — the fruit
  9. race — a contest
  10. clip — to cut
  11. field — for sport
  12. rash — hasty
  13. season — in sport
  14. race — the arms race
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. wind — moving air
  17. field — farmland
  18. race — humankind
  19. rash — a series
  20. capital — a city
  21. rash — on the skin
  22. field — a subject
  23. date — on the calendar
  24. wind — moving air

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