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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 · kid · wound · toast · trunk · mine · capital · date

  1. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. Have you settled on a ________________?
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  7. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  10. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  11. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  15. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  16. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. kid — child
  3. field — a subject
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. toast — the most admired
  7. trunk — of an elephant
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. wound — past of 'wind'
  10. trunk — of a tree
  11. trunk — of a car
  12. kid — to tease
  13. field — for sport
  14. toast — a drink to someone
  15. toast — bread
  16. mine — belonging to me
  17. capital — a city
  18. date — on the calendar
  19. capital — money
  20. wound — an injury
  21. field — farmland
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. mine — for digging
  24. date — the fruit

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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