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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: wind · file · capital · band · tear · march

  1. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  8. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  9. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  10. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  11. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  12. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  13. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  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. tear — from crying
  2. capital — a city
  3. file — a document
  4. file — a tool
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. file — a line of people
  7. band — a music group
  8. wind — moving air
  9. march — the month
  10. wind — moving air
  11. tear — to rip
  12. march — the month
  13. tear — from crying
  14. capital — money
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. band — a ring
  17. band — a rubber band
  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