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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: hand · fan · wake · patient · file · bass · bat · capital

  1. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  2. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  5. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  9. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  10. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  11. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  12. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  20. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. patient — calm and waiting
  2. wake — before a funeral
  3. capital — money
  4. file — a document
  5. bass — the fish
  6. hand — help
  7. hand — in cards
  8. fan — a supporter
  9. fan — a supporter
  10. patient — a sick person
  11. wake — a trail
  12. hand — part of the body
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. fan — to cool the air
  15. bat — the animal
  16. patient — a sick person
  17. file — a tool
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. bass — low music
  20. wake — to stop sleeping
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. file — a line of people
  23. bass — the instrument
  24. capital — a city

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