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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 120 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: can · court · capital · land · rush · game · tear · bat

  1. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  2. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  6. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  7. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  10. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  13. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. That must've been a ________________.
  19. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. ________________ you help me carry this box?

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

Answer key

  1. court — of a king
  2. bat — the animal
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. land — to come down
  5. tear — from crying
  6. can — a tin
  7. land — ground
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. rush — to hurry
  10. court — of law
  11. capital — a city
  12. rush — hurry
  13. land — a country
  14. game — a match
  15. tear — from crying
  16. tear — to rip
  17. game — wild animals
  18. rush — a thrill
  19. can — a tin
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. capital — money
  22. court — for sport
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. can — to be able to

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