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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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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: last · field · row · bark · capital · stand · kid · spell

  1. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. False peace will not ________________.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. I can't ________________ this cold.
  6. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  7. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  8. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  15. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  19. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. How do you ________________ your surname?
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. last — to go on
  3. field — a subject
  4. field — farmland
  5. stand — to bear
  6. spell — magic
  7. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  8. stand — for spectators
  9. row — to paddle
  10. capital — a city
  11. bark — to shout
  12. row — a line
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. stand — on your feet
  15. last — final
  16. kid — to tease
  17. kid — child
  18. row — a quarrel
  19. bark — of a tree
  20. capital — money
  21. spell — letters
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. spell — a short time
  24. last — finally

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