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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 keeps ________________ of his days.
  2. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  3. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  9. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  10. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  15. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  21. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  22. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  23. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. track — to keep track
  2. net — for catching
  3. track — a song
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. capital — a city
  6. capital — money
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. net — after costs
  9. branch — of a tree
  10. track — a path
  11. cold — not warm
  12. chip — for betting
  13. bat — the animal
  14. net — in sport
  15. chip — in a computer
  16. band — a ring
  17. cold — an illness
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. branch — of a bank
  21. chip — to eat
  22. band — a music group
  23. branch — a division
  24. cold — the Cold War

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