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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. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  2. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  3. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. She's very handy with a ________________.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. My mare is ________________ in color.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. He works in a ________________ mill.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  24. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. saw — past of 'see'
  2. tear — to rip
  3. field — for sport
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. saw — the tool
  6. capital — money
  7. clip — to cut
  8. content — happy
  9. bay — a horse colour
  10. clip — for paper
  11. clip — a video
  12. file — a line of people
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. tear — from crying
  15. file — a document
  16. file — a tool
  17. tear — from crying
  18. field — farmland
  19. field — a subject
  20. saw — the tool
  21. capital — a city
  22. content — the amount
  23. bay — to keep at bay
  24. bay — a part of the sea

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