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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 · capital · chest · fine · ball · shower · last · land

  1. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  3. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. False peace will not ________________.
  7. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. The King held a masked ________________.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  14. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  15. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  16. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. ball — a great time
  3. shower — rain
  4. land — ground
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. last — to go on
  7. last — finally
  8. land — a country
  9. fine — a penalty
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. ball — a dance
  12. land — to come down
  13. fine — all right
  14. chest — of your body
  15. ball — a round shape
  16. last — final
  17. chest — a box
  18. chest — of your body
  19. capital — a city
  20. capital — money
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. shower — to wash
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. fine — high quality

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