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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: game · land · capital · tear · wind · march · last · kid

  1. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  4. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. False peace will not ________________.
  7. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  8. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  13. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  23. When are we going to ________________?
  24. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  4. tear — to rip
  5. capital — a city
  6. last — to go on
  7. march — music
  8. tear — from crying
  9. tear — from crying
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. capital — money
  12. last — finally
  13. last — final
  14. land — ground
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. wind — moving air
  17. game — a match
  18. kid — child
  19. march — the month
  20. land — a country
  21. wind — moving air
  22. game — wild animals
  23. land — to come down
  24. kid — to tease

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