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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 had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  8. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  9. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  12. How do you ________________ your surname?
  13. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  17. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  21. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. capital — a city
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. spell — a short time
  6. march — music
  7. bass — low music
  8. bass — the fish
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. pit — in a race
  12. spell — letters
  13. kid — to tease
  14. capital — money
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. fan — to cool the air
  17. pit — a fruit stone
  18. march — the month
  19. march — the month
  20. pit — a hole
  21. bass — the instrument
  22. bat — the animal
  23. fan — a supporter
  24. spell — magic

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