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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: bat · spell · net · capital · mine · clip · ball · wake

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  9. The King held a masked ________________.
  10. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. How do you ________________ your surname?
  15. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  16. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  17. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  18. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  19. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  20. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  21. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. net — in sport
  4. mine — for digging
  5. clip — a video
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. clip — for paper
  8. wake — to stop sleeping
  9. ball — a dance
  10. spell — magic
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. clip — to cut
  13. bat — the animal
  14. spell — letters
  15. ball — a great time
  16. net — after costs
  17. net — for catching
  18. spell — a short time
  19. mine — belonging to me
  20. wake — a trail
  21. ball — a round shape
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. capital — money
  24. wake — before a funeral

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