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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 116 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: squash · field · capital · stock · clip · kid · club · wound

  1. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  3. The ________________ market has crashed.
  4. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  8. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  9. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  10. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  11. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  15. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. club — for golf
  3. stock — shares
  4. squash — the sport
  5. field — for sport
  6. capital — money
  7. stock — a soup base
  8. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  9. squash — the vegetable
  10. club — a group
  11. stock — goods
  12. capital — a city
  13. clip — a video
  14. field — farmland
  15. club — for dancing
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. clip — for paper
  18. clip — to cut
  19. kid — child
  20. wound — an injury
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. field — a subject
  23. wound — an injury
  24. squash — to crush

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