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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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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: cap · wound · squash · mine · bat · capital · court · craft

  1. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  2. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  6. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  7. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  8. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  9. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  10. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  16. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  19. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  23. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  24. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.

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

Answer key

  1. craft — boats
  2. mine — an explosive
  3. capital — a city
  4. mine — for digging
  5. wound — an injury
  6. cap — a lid
  7. wound — past of 'wind'
  8. court — of a king
  9. craft — a skill
  10. cap — of ice
  11. court — for sport
  12. wound — an injury
  13. squash — to crush
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. bat — the animal
  16. craft — a handicraft
  17. capital — money
  18. squash — the vegetable
  19. cap — a hat
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. squash — the sport
  23. court — of law
  24. mine — belonging to me

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