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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: bat · race · capital · bowl · tube · clip · game · march

  1. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  2. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  3. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  10. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  23. I'll be taking the ________________.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — to roll
  2. bowl — a football final
  3. race — a contest
  4. march — music
  5. tube — a container
  6. capital — money
  7. game — a match
  8. clip — to cut
  9. bowl — a dish
  10. march — the month
  11. clip — for paper
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. race — humankind
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. march — the month
  17. clip — a video
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. game — wild animals
  20. race — the arms race
  21. bat — the animal
  22. tube — in a tire
  23. tube — the underground
  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