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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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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: shower · bat · cell · root · pop · field · bank · capital

  1. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  2. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  5. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  8. He was locked up in a ________________.
  9. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  10. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  16. We're almost out of ________________.
  17. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. You don't need to ________________ round.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  22. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bank — for money
  2. cell — in biology
  3. bat — the animal
  4. shower — to wash
  5. root — the cause
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. bank — of a river
  8. cell — in a prison
  9. bank — for money
  10. capital — a city
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. root — of a plant
  14. cell — a phone
  15. capital — money
  16. pop — soda
  17. root — of a word
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. pop — to visit
  20. field — for sport
  21. pop — music
  22. field — a subject
  23. shower — rain
  24. field — farmland

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