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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: land · stock · capital · row · patient · hand · tube · game

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  4. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. The ________________ market has crashed.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  10. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  11. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  14. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  15. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. When are we going to ________________?
  19. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  23. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  24. I'll be taking the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. stock — goods
  4. patient — calm and waiting
  5. hand — help
  6. land — a country
  7. stock — shares
  8. game — wild animals
  9. tube — in a tire
  10. row — a quarrel
  11. patient — a sick person
  12. game — a match
  13. stock — a soup base
  14. row — a line
  15. patient — a sick person
  16. capital — a city
  17. capital — money
  18. land — to come down
  19. row — to paddle
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. hand — in cards
  22. tube — a container
  23. hand — part of the body
  24. tube — the underground

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