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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. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  10. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  16. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  19. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  20. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  21. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. race — a contest
  2. capital — a city
  3. file — a document
  4. spring — the season
  5. stick — to attach or keep to
  6. race — humankind
  7. scale — for weighing
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. stick — a piece of wood
  10. content — happy
  11. spring — of water
  12. file — a tool
  13. land — ground
  14. land — to come down
  15. spring — a coil
  16. stick — a piece of wood
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. capital — money
  19. scale — size or range
  20. race — the arms race
  21. scale — in music
  22. file — a line of people
  23. content — the amount
  24. land — a country

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