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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 play ________________ in a jazz band.
  2. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  5. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  6. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  12. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. He was locked up in a ________________.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — the instrument
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. pit — a hole
  5. bass — the fish
  6. cell — in biology
  7. field — farmland
  8. capital — a city
  9. cell — a phone
  10. field — a subject
  11. pit — a fruit stone
  12. fan — to cool the air
  13. field — for sport
  14. spring — the season
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. cell — in a prison
  17. spring — of water
  18. spring — a coil
  19. pit — in a race
  20. capital — money
  21. row — a line
  22. bass — low music
  23. row — to paddle
  24. fan — a supporter

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