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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. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  9. Have you found your soul ________________?
  10. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  13. I'll be taking the ________________.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  22. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  23. The ball is in your ________________.
  24. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. straw — dry grass
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. court — of a king
  5. net — after costs
  6. capital — a city
  7. capital — money
  8. court — of law
  9. mate — a partner
  10. net — for catching
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. mate — to breed
  13. tube — the underground
  14. file — a line of people
  15. file — a tool
  16. file — a document
  17. capital — a big letter
  18. field — for sport
  19. net — in sport
  20. field — farmland
  21. tube — in a tire
  22. mate — a friend
  23. court — for sport
  24. tube — a container

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