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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: lean · cell · mine · pop · straw · capital · kid · cap

  1. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  2. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  16. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  17. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  18. We're almost out of ________________.
  19. You don't need to ________________ round.
  20. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. The polar ice ________________ is melting.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — an explosive
  2. pop — music
  3. capital — a city
  4. mine — for digging
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. capital — money
  7. lean — to rest against
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. lean — thin
  10. kid — to tease
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. cap — a lid
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. lean — to bend
  16. cell — a phone
  17. kid — child
  18. pop — soda
  19. pop — to visit
  20. cap — a hat
  21. cell — in biology
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. cap — of ice

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