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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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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: shower · ground · race · wind · foot · straw · capital · file

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  6. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  15. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  16. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. shower — a meteor shower
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. file — a line of people
  5. foot — the bottom
  6. wind — moving air
  7. capital — money
  8. wind — moving air
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. foot — part of the body
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. race — a contest
  13. file — a document
  14. ground — crushed
  15. race — the arms race
  16. foot — a measure
  17. ground — a position
  18. shower — rain
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. shower — to wash
  22. ground — the earth
  23. race — humankind
  24. file — a tool

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