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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: capital · rest · march · club · file · cold

  1. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  2. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  3. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  4. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  17. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  18. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — a break
  2. club — for golf
  3. club — for dancing
  4. capital — a big letter
  5. capital — money
  6. file — a tool
  7. rest — what's left
  8. cold — an illness
  9. rest — what's left
  10. cold — not warm
  11. club — a group
  12. capital — a city
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. file — a line of people
  15. file — a document
  16. march — the month
  17. march — the month
  18. march — music

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