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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: shower · field · capital · net · stick · bat · object · game

  1. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  3. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  4. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. That was a fun ________________.
  9. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  14. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  15. Thanks to his efforts, he attained his ________________.
  16. Why would I ________________ to a disabled ramp?
  17. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. A valuable ________________ decreases in value if it is damaged.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. What was your ________________ profit last year?

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. game — a kind of play
  3. stick — a piece of wood
  4. stick — a piece of wood
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. capital — money
  7. capital — a city
  8. game — a match
  9. net — in sport
  10. shower — to wash
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. field — for sport
  13. capital — a big letter
  14. field — a subject
  15. object — an aim
  16. object — to protest
  17. game — wild animals
  18. shower — rain
  19. stick — to attach or keep to
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. object — a thing
  22. bat — the animal
  23. net — for catching
  24. net — after costs

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