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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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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: march · chest · band · wave · root · capital · trunk · lie

  1. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  6. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  7. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  8. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  9. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  12. The surfers were looking for the perfect ________________.
  13. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  14. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  15. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  16. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  17. A lot of friends came to ________________ goodbye to me.
  18. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  19. I am seized by an uncontrollable ________________ of sadness.
  20. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  21. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. root — of a word
  2. chest — of your body
  3. trunk — of an elephant
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. band — a ring
  6. lie — an untruth
  7. trunk — of a tree
  8. march — the month
  9. lie — to recline
  10. capital — money
  11. lie — an untruth
  12. wave — of the sea
  13. chest — of your body
  14. trunk — of a car
  15. band — a rubber band
  16. root — of a plant
  17. wave — with your hand
  18. band — a music group
  19. wave — a sudden rise
  20. root — the cause
  21. march — music
  22. march — the month
  23. capital — a city
  24. chest — a box

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