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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: march · shower · hand · kick · last · capital · band · current

  1. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  5. False peace will not ________________.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  10. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  14. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  15. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  20. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  21. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  22. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. capital — money
  3. last — finally
  4. march — the month
  5. last — to go on
  6. hand — help
  7. current — of water
  8. capital — a city
  9. current — happening now
  10. kick — in football
  11. hand — in cards
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. march — music
  14. kick — with a leg
  15. kick — a thrill
  16. band — a music group
  17. shower — to wash
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. current — electric
  20. march — the month
  21. hand — part of the body
  22. band — a ring
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. shower — rain

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