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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 lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  2. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. It's one o'clock ________________.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  13. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  17. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  20. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  21. The ________________ market has crashed.
  22. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — a box
  2. root — the cause
  3. chest — of your body
  4. sharp — exactly
  5. field — for sport
  6. perch — for a bird
  7. cold — an illness
  8. field — farmland
  9. capital — a city
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. perch — the fish
  13. sharp — with an edge
  14. capital — money
  15. cold — not warm
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. stock — a soup base
  18. field — a subject
  19. root — of a word
  20. sharp — clever
  21. stock — shares
  22. root — of a plant
  23. chest — of your body
  24. stock — goods

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