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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 coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  8. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  11. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  12. David sat on the ________________.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  22. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — in golf
  2. file — a tool
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. field — farmland
  5. root — of a word
  6. chest — of your body
  7. file — a document
  8. chip — in a computer
  9. field — a subject
  10. chip — for betting
  11. root — the cause
  12. swing — to play on
  13. cold — not warm
  14. chest — of your body
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. capital — a city
  17. chip — to eat
  18. field — for sport
  19. capital — money
  20. chest — a box
  21. root — of a plant
  22. swing — music
  23. cold — an illness
  24. file — a line of people

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