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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: field · bat · capital · wound · bass · cap · mate · content

  1. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  2. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  5. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  12. Have you found your soul ________________?
  13. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  20. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a friend
  2. bass — the fish
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. bass — the instrument
  5. bass — low music
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. field — farmland
  8. content — happy
  9. wound — an injury
  10. field — for sport
  11. content — videos and posts
  12. mate — a partner
  13. cap — a hat
  14. bat — the animal
  15. capital — a city
  16. mate — to breed
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. wound — an injury
  19. cap — of ice
  20. wound — past of 'wind'
  21. content — the amount
  22. capital — money
  23. cap — a lid
  24. field — a subject

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