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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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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: tear · capital · perch · chair · hand · band · stand · cell

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  3. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  4. I can't ________________ this cold.
  5. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  6. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  7. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  8. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  9. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  13. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  14. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  15. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  16. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  17. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  18. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  19. He was locked up in a ________________.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. cell — a phone
  3. tear — from crying
  4. stand — to bear
  5. stand — for spectators
  6. chair — to sit on
  7. chair — a professorship
  8. tear — to rip
  9. tear — from crying
  10. hand — help
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. band — a rubber band
  13. perch — the fish
  14. band — a ring
  15. chair — a leader
  16. cell — in biology
  17. perch — for a bird
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. cell — in a prison
  20. hand — in cards
  21. band — a music group
  22. capital — money
  23. stand — on your feet
  24. hand — part of the body

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