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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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Word bank
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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: fork · tear · capital · bark · band · cold

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  10. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  16. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  18. 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. cold — the Cold War
  3. tear — from crying
  4. band — a music group
  5. cold — an illness
  6. fork — to eat with
  7. tear — to rip
  8. cold — not warm
  9. bark — of a tree
  10. band — a ring
  11. capital — money
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. bark — to shout
  14. tear — from crying
  15. fork — a garden tool
  16. bark — a dog's sound
  17. band — a rubber band
  18. 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