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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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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: craft · chest · capital · field · clip · wound · fork · mark

  1. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  5. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  13. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  14. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  15. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  16. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  22. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  23. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — money
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. chest — of your body
  4. mark — a grade
  5. fork — a garden tool
  6. chest — a box
  7. field — a subject
  8. field — farmland
  9. clip — for paper
  10. clip — a video
  11. chest — of your body
  12. craft — boats
  13. fork — to eat with
  14. mark — to pay attention
  15. craft — a handicraft
  16. fork — in a road
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. clip — to cut
  19. wound — an injury
  20. wound — an injury
  21. mark — a trace
  22. field — for sport
  23. craft — a skill
  24. capital — a city

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