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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: file · bank · wind · degree · race · march · mine · capital

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  3. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  19. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.
  20. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  21. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  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. wind — moving air
  3. bank — for money
  4. mine — for digging
  5. file — a line of people
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. degree — temperature
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. degree — an amount
  10. capital — money
  11. march — the month
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. file — a document
  14. bank — of a river
  15. march — music
  16. mine — belonging to me
  17. wind — moving air
  18. race — a contest
  19. bank — for money
  20. race — humankind
  21. race — the arms race
  22. degree — from a university
  23. march — the month
  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