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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: spring · capital · cell · fine · bat · row · swing · tear

  1. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  4. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. David sat on the ________________.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  17. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. He was locked up in a ________________.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. swing — in golf
  2. capital — a city
  3. spring — a coil
  4. fine — all right
  5. row — a line
  6. swing — music
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. tear — to rip
  10. spring — the season
  11. swing — to play on
  12. tear — from crying
  13. fine — a penalty
  14. tear — from crying
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. bat — for baseball
  17. cell — a phone
  18. cell — in biology
  19. spring — of water
  20. fine — high quality
  21. bat — the animal
  22. row — to paddle
  23. cell — in a prison
  24. capital — money

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