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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: bat · wound · pitcher · object · hide · row · snap · capital

  1. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  3. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  4. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  5. He is an ace ________________.
  6. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  11. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  12. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  13. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  16. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  24. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. hide — to keep secret
  3. wound — past of 'wind'
  4. hide — animal skin
  5. pitcher — in baseball
  6. hide — to keep secret
  7. capital — a city
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. capital — money
  10. snap — to click
  11. snap — to speak sharply
  12. pitcher — a jug
  13. object — a thing
  14. row — a line
  15. snap — to snap out of it
  16. wound — an injury
  17. wound — an injury
  18. row — a quarrel
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. row — to paddle
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. bat — the animal
  23. object — to protest
  24. object — an aim

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