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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.

Words on the sheet
468
Word bank
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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: swing · wound · capital · clip · present · field · bass · mark

  1. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  3. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  4. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  7. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  10. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  14. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  15. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  16. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. David sat on the ________________.
  21. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  22. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. wound — an injury
  3. bass — the fish
  4. swing — in golf
  5. capital — a city
  6. clip — for paper
  7. mark — a trace
  8. wound — an injury
  9. present — a gift
  10. bass — the instrument
  11. clip — to cut
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. mark — a grade
  14. bass — low music
  15. present — the time now
  16. present — there
  17. field — a subject
  18. clip — a video
  19. capital — money
  20. swing — to play on
  21. swing — music
  22. mark — to pay attention
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. field — for sport

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