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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 · march · field · cold · kid · bat · straw · bass

  1. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  7. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  24. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — dry grass
  2. bat — the animal
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. field — for sport
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. bass — the instrument
  7. kid — to tease
  8. cold — an illness
  9. capital — money
  10. bass — low music
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. cold — not warm
  13. kid — child
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. march — the month
  17. march — music
  18. field — farmland
  19. field — a subject
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. capital — a city
  23. march — the month
  24. bass — the fish

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