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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 116 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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  3. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  4. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  7. The ________________ market has crashed.
  8. When are we going to ________________?
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  12. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  15. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  18. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. trunk — of an elephant
  3. fine — all right
  4. fine — high quality
  5. land — ground
  6. trunk — of a car
  7. stock — shares
  8. land — to come down
  9. file — a document
  10. file — a tool
  11. land — a country
  12. capital — money
  13. file — a line of people
  14. trunk — of a tree
  15. fine — a penalty
  16. capital — a city
  17. stock — a soup base
  18. stock — goods

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