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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 from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: bat · fork · cap · pound · chest · bass · clip · capital

  1. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  2. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  3. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  6. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  14. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  23. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  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. cap — a lid
  2. bass — the instrument
  3. fork — a garden tool
  4. clip — a video
  5. fork — to eat with
  6. fork — in a road
  7. capital — a city
  8. pound — to hit hard
  9. chest — of your body
  10. bass — the fish
  11. clip — for paper
  12. capital — money
  13. cap — a hat
  14. chest — of your body
  15. clip — to cut
  16. bass — low music
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. cap — of ice
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. chest — a box
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. pound — a weight
  23. pound — for dogs
  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