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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: press · bat · roll · bulb · straw · shower · capital · clip

  1. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  2. I've got to change the light ________________.
  3. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  4. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. We're on a ________________ here.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. The light ________________ burned out.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  14. Did you ________________ the button?
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  17. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  23. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  24. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — money
  2. bulb — for light
  3. bat — in an idiom
  4. bulb — of a plant
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. roll — on a roll
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. shower — rain
  9. roll — a cake
  10. clip — a video
  11. bulb — for light
  12. clip — to cut
  13. roll — a list
  14. press — to push
  15. capital — a city
  16. press — a publisher
  17. clip — for paper
  18. shower — to wash
  19. bat — the animal
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. straw — a straw man
  23. press — newspapers
  24. capital — a big letter

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