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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: clip · row · court · pitch · capital · bat · chest · bank

  1. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  5. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  8. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  12. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. The ball is in your ________________.
  15. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  16. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. chest — of your body
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. court — of a king
  5. pitch — completely
  6. capital — a city
  7. bank — of a river
  8. clip — a video
  9. capital — money
  10. clip — to cut
  11. row — a line
  12. pitch — a sports field
  13. chest — a box
  14. court — for sport
  15. bank — for money
  16. pitch — a sales talk
  17. row — to paddle
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. bat — the animal
  20. chest — of your body
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. clip — for paper
  23. court — of law
  24. bank — for money

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