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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: saw · squash · shower · tube · tear · bat · capital · club

  1. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. He works in a ________________ mill.
  5. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  6. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. She's very handy with a ________________.
  9. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  10. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  11. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  23. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  24. I'll be taking the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. club — a group
  2. capital — a city
  3. tear — from crying
  4. saw — the tool
  5. squash — the vegetable
  6. club — for golf
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. saw — the tool
  9. tube — in a tire
  10. shower — a meteor shower
  11. tube — a container
  12. tear — from crying
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. tear — to rip
  15. squash — to crush
  16. bat — the animal
  17. club — for dancing
  18. shower — to wash
  19. shower — rain
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. capital — money
  22. squash — the sport
  23. saw — past of 'see'
  24. tube — the underground

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