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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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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: straw · capital · scale · bat · last · cell · pitch · wind

  1. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  4. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  9. False peace will not ________________.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  12. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  15. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  16. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  17. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  18. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  22. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — money
  2. capital — a city
  3. pitch — a sports field
  4. cell — a phone
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. wind — to turn a key
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. pitch — a sales talk
  9. last — to go on
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. scale — size or range
  12. cell — in biology
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. pitch — completely
  15. last — finally
  16. scale — in music
  17. straw — dry grass
  18. scale — for weighing
  19. wind — moving air
  20. wind — moving air
  21. last — final
  22. straw — a straw man
  23. bat — the animal
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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