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

  1. You don't need to ________________ round.
  2. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  14. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  15. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  18. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  19. The tickets are free of ________________.
  20. The ________________ market has crashed.
  21. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. We're almost out of ________________.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — to visit
  2. tear — from crying
  3. land — to come down
  4. tear — from crying
  5. land — ground
  6. land — a country
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. wind — moving air
  9. wind — moving air
  10. stock — goods
  11. march — the month
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. charge — electricity
  14. pop — music
  15. march — the month
  16. capital — money
  17. tear — to rip
  18. charge — in control
  19. charge — a price
  20. stock — shares
  21. stock — a soup base
  22. march — music
  23. pop — soda
  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