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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: scale · file · cold · shower · capital · band · pitcher · mark

  1. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  4. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  9. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  13. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. He is an ace ________________.
  16. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. Fill up this ________________ with water.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. shower — to wash
  3. scale — size or range
  4. scale — for weighing
  5. cold — not warm
  6. band — a rubber band
  7. file — a tool
  8. shower — a meteor shower
  9. band — a music group
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. file — a line of people
  12. mark — to pay attention
  13. mark — a trace
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. pitcher — in baseball
  16. mark — a grade
  17. capital — a city
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. cold — an illness
  20. scale — in music
  21. shower — rain
  22. file — a document
  23. capital — money
  24. pitcher — a jug

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