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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: chair · row · shower · field · track · clip · net · capital

  1. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  7. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  15. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  23. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  24. He's taking a ________________ right now.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — rain
  2. field — farmland
  3. clip — a video
  4. track — a path
  5. row — a line
  6. chair — a leader
  7. track — to keep track
  8. clip — to cut
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. capital — money
  11. capital — a city
  12. chair — a professorship
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. net — after costs
  15. track — a song
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. net — for catching
  18. field — for sport
  19. field — a subject
  20. row — to paddle
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. net — in sport
  23. clip — for paper
  24. shower — to wash

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