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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  4. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  10. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. When are we going to ________________?
  15. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  16. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  17. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  18. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  19. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  22. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  23. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. shower — to wash
  3. fork — a garden tool
  4. shower — rain
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. cap — a hat
  7. capital — money
  8. capital — a city
  9. straw — a straw man
  10. bass — the instrument
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. land — a country
  14. land — to come down
  15. bass — low music
  16. scale — in music
  17. cap — of ice
  18. bass — the fish
  19. scale — size or range
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. scale — for weighing
  22. fork — to eat with
  23. cap — a lid
  24. fork — in a road

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