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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: wound · cell · capital · kid · bound · bass · squash · clip

  1. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  2. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  3. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. He was locked up in a ________________.
  10. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  13. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  14. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. That was ________________ to happen.
  17. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  22. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  23. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cell — a phone
  2. bass — low music
  3. squash — to crush
  4. wound — an injury
  5. capital — a city
  6. clip — to cut
  7. cell — in biology
  8. kid — to tease
  9. cell — in a prison
  10. kid — child
  11. clip — for paper
  12. bass — the fish
  13. wound — an injury
  14. bound — obliged
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. bound — certain
  17. bound — tied together
  18. clip — a video
  19. squash — the vegetable
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. squash — the sport
  22. wound — past of 'wind'
  23. bass — the instrument
  24. capital — money

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