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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. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  2. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. False peace will not ________________.
  13. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  14. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  22. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. club — a group
  2. clip — to cut
  3. field — a subject
  4. fan — a supporter
  5. field — for sport
  6. last — final
  7. cold — not warm
  8. fan — a supporter
  9. cold — an illness
  10. stem — of a plant
  11. capital — money
  12. last — to go on
  13. club — for dancing
  14. fan — to cool the air
  15. capital — a city
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. field — farmland
  18. stem — a stem cell
  19. clip — for paper
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. clip — a video
  22. stem — to come from
  23. last — finally
  24. club — for golf

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