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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: spring · capital · mine · cap · net · pitcher · kid · jam

  1. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  13. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  14. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  15. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  22. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  23. He is an ace ________________.
  24. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.

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

Answer key

  1. jam — to spread on bread
  2. capital — money
  3. pitcher — a jug
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. spring — a coil
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. cap — a lid
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. kid — to tease
  11. net — for catching
  12. net — in sport
  13. cap — of ice
  14. capital — a big letter
  15. jam — a tight spot
  16. mine — for digging
  17. spring — the season
  18. kid — child
  19. jam — in traffic
  20. spring — of water
  21. capital — a city
  22. net — after costs
  23. pitcher — in baseball
  24. cap — a hat

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