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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 120 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 · row · hand · rock · cold · capital · shower · stem

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  5. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  16. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  19. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  22. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. rock — music
  3. row — a line
  4. rock — a stone
  5. stem — of a plant
  6. shower — rain
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. capital — money
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. cold — an illness
  11. shower — to wash
  12. rock — to move gently
  13. row — to paddle
  14. hand — in cards
  15. bass — low music
  16. stem — to come from
  17. cold — not warm
  18. stem — a stem cell
  19. row — a quarrel
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. bass — the instrument
  22. bass — the fish
  23. capital — a city
  24. hand — part of the body

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