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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 120 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: tear · temple · capital · cell · file · cabinet · pitcher · stock

  1. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  2. What do you think of the new ________________?
  3. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  4. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  5. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  6. The ________________ market has crashed.
  7. When was this ________________ built?
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  14. He was locked up in a ________________.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. He is an ace ________________.
  17. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  22. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  23. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — a place of worship
  2. cabinet — ministers
  3. tear — from crying
  4. file — a tool
  5. capital — a city
  6. stock — shares
  7. temple — a place of worship
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. capital — a big letter
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. cell — a phone
  12. tear — to rip
  13. cabinet — ministers
  14. cell — in a prison
  15. file — a line of people
  16. pitcher — in baseball
  17. stock — goods
  18. tear — from crying
  19. file — a document
  20. capital — money
  21. temple — side of the head
  22. stock — a soup base
  23. cabinet — a cupboard
  24. cell — in biology

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