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

Word bank: tear · stock · wind · land · march · capital

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

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. stock — a soup base
  3. stock — goods
  4. wind — to turn a key
  5. tear — from crying
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. wind — moving air
  8. march — the month
  9. capital — money
  10. wind — moving air
  11. tear — to rip
  12. land — ground
  13. march — music
  14. tear — from crying
  15. stock — shares
  16. land — to come down
  17. march — the month
  18. land — a country

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