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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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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: staff · capital · kid · file · swing · mine · wind · pitcher

  1. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  4. David sat on the ________________.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. He is an ace ________________.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  11. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  12. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  13. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  14. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  24. Fill up this ________________ with water.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. capital — a city
  3. staff — employees
  4. swing — to play on
  5. capital — money
  6. file — a tool
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. pitcher — in baseball
  9. kid — to tease
  10. wind — moving air
  11. swing — in golf
  12. staff — employees
  13. swing — music
  14. staff — a stick
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. kid — child
  17. mine — for digging
  18. file — a line of people
  19. file — a document
  20. mine — belonging to me
  21. wind — moving air
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. mine — an explosive
  24. pitcher — a jug

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