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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: capital · tube · shower · cap · bass · stock · perch · clip

  1. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  2. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  3. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  7. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. I'll be taking the ________________.
  13. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  18. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  19. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  20. The ________________ market has crashed.
  21. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  22. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  23. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  24. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — a soup base
  2. bass — the fish
  3. tube — a container
  4. capital — a city
  5. shower — to wash
  6. stock — goods
  7. cap — of ice
  8. clip — a video
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. bass — the instrument
  11. clip — for paper
  12. tube — the underground
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. capital — money
  15. clip — to cut
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. tube — in a tire
  18. cap — a hat
  19. cap — a lid
  20. stock — shares
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. bass — low music
  23. shower — rain
  24. perch — the fish

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