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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 stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  4. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  9. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. David sat on the ________________.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The King held a masked ________________.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  18. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  19. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  22. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  23. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. clip — for paper
  3. cap — a lid
  4. cap — a hat
  5. capital — money
  6. swing — music
  7. cold — an illness
  8. ball — a round shape
  9. root — of a word
  10. clip — a video
  11. swing — to play on
  12. cold — not warm
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. ball — a dance
  15. field — farmland
  16. clip — to cut
  17. ball — a great time
  18. swing — in golf
  19. capital — a big letter
  20. capital — a city
  21. cap — of ice
  22. root — of a plant
  23. root — the cause
  24. field — a subject

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