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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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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 · wound · capital · suit · wind · spring · bat · hand

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  4. When will it ________________ you to start?
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. field — farmland
  3. suit — clothes
  4. suit — to fit
  5. spring — of water
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. wind — moving air
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. field — for sport
  10. wound — an injury
  11. spring — a coil
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. wound — an injury
  14. wind — to turn a key
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. suit — in cards
  17. bat — the animal
  18. field — a subject
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. spring — the season
  21. capital — money
  22. hand — in cards
  23. hand — help
  24. wind — moving air

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