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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: lash · file · hand · field · capital · chair · content · chest

  1. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  3. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  24. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. chair — a leader
  3. lash — a whip stroke
  4. chest — of your body
  5. file — a tool
  6. capital — money
  7. lash — an eyelash
  8. content — the amount
  9. file — a document
  10. lash — to lash out
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. chair — to sit on
  13. hand — help
  14. field — for sport
  15. hand — in cards
  16. field — a subject
  17. capital — a city
  18. file — a line of people
  19. chair — a professorship
  20. chest — a box
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. content — happy
  24. chest — of your body

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