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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. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  4. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  7. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  8. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  11. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  12. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  19. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. fork — a garden tool
  4. fork — to eat with
  5. capital — money
  6. band — a ring
  7. land — a country
  8. bark — to shout
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. tear — from crying
  11. bark — of a tree
  12. ruler — for measuring
  13. land — to come down
  14. cold — an illness
  15. ruler — a monarch
  16. tear — from crying
  17. band — a music group
  18. bark — a dog's sound
  19. ruler — for measuring
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. tear — to rip
  22. cold — not warm
  23. land — ground
  24. fork — in a road

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