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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 120 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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: fork · bat · prune · field · content · chair · wave · capital

  1. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  2. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  10. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  13. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  16. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  17. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  22. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. fork — a garden tool
  2. wave — of the sea
  3. prune — to trim
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. capital — money
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. field — farmland
  9. field — a subject
  10. wave — a sudden rise
  11. content — the amount
  12. wave — with your hand
  13. fork — in a road
  14. field — for sport
  15. chair — a professorship
  16. fork — to eat with
  17. prune — the fruit
  18. capital — a city
  19. chair — to sit on
  20. bat — the animal
  21. chair — a leader
  22. prune — to trim
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. content — happy

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