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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 116 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: ground · bat · saw · drill · capital · mine · pitcher · spell

  1. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  2. How do you ________________ your surname?
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. He works in a ________________ mill.
  5. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  12. He is an ace ________________.
  13. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  14. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  15. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. There's no middle ________________.
  21. She's very handy with a ________________.
  22. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — crushed
  2. spell — letters
  3. capital — money
  4. saw — the tool
  5. drill — the tool
  6. capital — a city
  7. mine — for digging
  8. saw — past of 'see'
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. drill — a practice
  12. pitcher — in baseball
  13. drill — army training
  14. ground — the earth
  15. spell — magic
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. spell — a short time
  20. ground — a position
  21. saw — the tool
  22. pitcher — a jug
  23. bat — the animal
  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