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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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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. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  3. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  4. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  15. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  21. The ball is in your ________________.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  24. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. wound — past of 'wind'
  3. straw — to clutch at straws
  4. straw — a straw man
  5. capital — money
  6. court — of law
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. file — a line of people
  9. cell — in biology
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. bass — low music
  12. wound — an injury
  13. file — a document
  14. straw — dry grass
  15. wound — an injury
  16. hand — help
  17. hand — in cards
  18. court — of a king
  19. file — a tool
  20. bass — the instrument
  21. court — for sport
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. bass — the fish
  24. cell — a phone

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