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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: field · mine · band · capital · stem · spell · season · wound

  1. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  6. How do you ________________ your surname?
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  9. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  10. Did you ________________ the meat?
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  13. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  18. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  19. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  23. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  24. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — a stem cell
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. field — farmland
  5. mine — for digging
  6. spell — letters
  7. field — a subject
  8. wound — an injury
  9. season — of the year
  10. season — to add flavour
  11. wound — an injury
  12. band — a music group
  13. spell — a short time
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. band — a ring
  16. field — for sport
  17. spell — magic
  18. wound — past of 'wind'
  19. stem — to come from
  20. capital — money
  21. capital — a city
  22. band — a rubber band
  23. season — in sport
  24. stem — of a plant

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