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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. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  4. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  5. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. The ________________ market has crashed.
  13. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  14. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  18. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  19. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  20. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  21. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  22. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  23. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  24. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. land — to come down
  3. wound — an injury
  4. snap — to click
  5. stock — goods
  6. capital — money
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. land — a country
  9. wound — an injury
  10. jam — a tight spot
  11. shower — to wash
  12. stock — shares
  13. band — a music group
  14. stock — a soup base
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. shower — rain
  18. jam — to spread on bread
  19. land — ground
  20. band — a rubber band
  21. jam — in traffic
  22. snap — to snap out of it
  23. band — a ring
  24. snap — to speak sharply

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