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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: bank · last · field · capital · cold · tear

  1. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  10. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. tear — from crying
  3. field — a subject
  4. cold — not warm
  5. tear — from crying
  6. field — for sport
  7. capital — money
  8. last — to go on
  9. bank — of a river
  10. last — finally
  11. tear — to rip
  12. field — farmland
  13. bank — for money
  14. capital — a city
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. last — final
  17. cold — an illness
  18. bank — for money

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