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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: bass · straw · kid · press · club · stem · capital · spring

  1. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  2. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  3. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  4. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  7. Did you ________________ the button?
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  11. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  14. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  18. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  19. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  22. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  23. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. press — a publisher
  2. club — for golf
  3. spring — the season
  4. bass — the instrument
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. stem — a stem cell
  7. press — to push
  8. spring — a coil
  9. spring — of water
  10. bass — the fish
  11. club — a group
  12. kid — child
  13. capital — money
  14. stem — of a plant
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. capital — a city
  17. bass — low music
  18. press — newspapers
  19. stem — to come from
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. club — for dancing
  22. straw — to clutch at straws
  23. straw — dry grass
  24. kid — to tease

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