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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 120 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 ball is in your ________________.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  5. The ________________ market has crashed.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  8. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  11. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  12. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  13. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  17. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  18. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  19. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  20. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  21. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  24. You can't go backstage without a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. court — for sport
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. wind — moving air
  4. mine — belonging to me
  5. stock — shares
  6. capital — a city
  7. wind — to turn a key
  8. branch — of a bank
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. branch — a division
  11. branch — of a tree
  12. stock — a soup base
  13. wind — moving air
  14. capital — money
  15. court — of law
  16. row — a line
  17. mine — an explosive
  18. pass — to spend time
  19. court — of a king
  20. pass — to succeed
  21. stock — goods
  22. row — to paddle
  23. mine — for digging
  24. pass — a permit

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