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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 · pound · pop · capital · wake · kick · stem · cold

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  6. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  7. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  8. You don't need to ________________ round.
  9. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  10. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  11. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  12. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  13. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  14. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  17. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. We're almost out of ________________.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  23. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  24. Many English words ________________ from Latin.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. cold — not warm
  3. capital — a big letter
  4. wind — moving air
  5. pound — for dogs
  6. kick — with a leg
  7. kick — a thrill
  8. pop — to visit
  9. stem — of a plant
  10. kick — in football
  11. pound — a weight
  12. stem — a stem cell
  13. wake — to stop sleeping
  14. wake — a trail
  15. cold — an illness
  16. wind — moving air
  17. pound — to hit hard
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. pop — soda
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. capital — money
  22. pop — music
  23. wake — before a funeral
  24. stem — to come from

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