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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: bass · band · press · kid · march · tear · capital · bat

  1. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  2. Did you ________________ the button?
  3. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  4. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  5. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  8. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  14. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  15. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — in an idiom
  2. press — to push
  3. press — a publisher
  4. march — the month
  5. press — newspapers
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. band — a rubber band
  8. band — a music group
  9. kid — child
  10. march — the month
  11. tear — to rip
  12. bat — the animal
  13. bass — the instrument
  14. march — music
  15. kid — to tease
  16. band — a ring
  17. bass — the fish
  18. tear — from crying
  19. tear — from crying
  20. bass — low music
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. capital — money
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. capital — a city

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