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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. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  9. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  10. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  11. How do you ________________ your surname?
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. Have you settled on a ________________?
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  17. He works in a ________________ mill.
  18. She's very handy with a ________________.
  19. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  20. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  21. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  22. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  23. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  24. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. snap — to click
  3. capital — a city
  4. board — a committee
  5. capital — money
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. bass — the fish
  9. snap — to speak sharply
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. spell — letters
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. spell — magic
  14. date — on the calendar
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. bass — low music
  17. saw — the tool
  18. saw — the tool
  19. board — a flat piece
  20. bass — the instrument
  21. spell — a short time
  22. date — the fruit
  23. board — to get on
  24. saw — past of 'see'

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