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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: wake · mouse · capital · hand · bat · key · mate · cell

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  7. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  11. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  12. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  16. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  17. This piece is in a major ________________.
  18. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  19. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. Have you found your soul ________________?
  23. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  24. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. capital — a city
  3. wake — to stop sleeping
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. mate — to breed
  7. hand — in cards
  8. capital — money
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. mouse — the animal
  11. mate — a friend
  12. cell — a phone
  13. bat — the animal
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. mouse — for a computer
  16. mouse — the animal
  17. key — in music
  18. key — for a lock
  19. key — the most important part
  20. cell — in biology
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. mate — a partner
  23. wake — before a funeral
  24. wake — a trail

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