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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: bass · press · clip · capital · prune · date · court · field

  1. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  6. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  7. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  8. Did you ________________ the button?
  9. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  10. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  13. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  14. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  15. Have you settled on a ________________?
  16. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  17. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  18. The ball is in your ________________.
  19. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  22. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. A ________________ is just a dried plum.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. capital — money
  3. bass — the fish
  4. field — a subject
  5. clip — to cut
  6. bass — low music
  7. bass — the instrument
  8. press — to push
  9. press — newspapers
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. clip — a video
  12. clip — for paper
  13. prune — to trim
  14. date — the fruit
  15. date — on the calendar
  16. court — of law
  17. prune — to trim
  18. court — for sport
  19. court — of a king
  20. field — for sport
  21. field — farmland
  22. press — a publisher
  23. capital — a city
  24. prune — the fruit

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