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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: clip · chair · capital · pitcher · root · bat · hide · cold

  1. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  2. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. He is an ace ________________.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  14. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  15. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  16. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  20. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  21. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. root — of a word
  2. bat — for baseball
  3. bat — the animal
  4. pitcher — in baseball
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. clip — for paper
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. root — of a plant
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. hide — to keep secret
  12. clip — a video
  13. root — the cause
  14. hide — to keep secret
  15. chair — a professorship
  16. pitcher — a jug
  17. clip — to cut
  18. cold — not warm
  19. hide — animal skin
  20. chair — a leader
  21. chair — to sit on
  22. capital — a city
  23. capital — money
  24. cold — an illness

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