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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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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: capital · net · bank · pop · bat · tear · stem · lean

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  7. You don't need to ________________ round.
  8. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  9. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  10. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  13. We're almost out of ________________.
  14. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  15. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  16. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  21. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. net — after costs
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. bank — for money
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. lean — thin
  7. pop — to visit
  8. lean — to bend
  9. bank — for money
  10. stem — to come from
  11. tear — to rip
  12. bank — of a river
  13. pop — soda
  14. net — in sport
  15. lean — to rest against
  16. stem — a stem cell
  17. capital — money
  18. tear — from crying
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. stem — of a plant
  21. pop — music
  22. tear — from crying
  23. net — for catching
  24. bat — the animal

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