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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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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: row · scale · capital · spring · straw · shower · stock · clip

  1. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  10. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  11. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. The ________________ market has crashed.
  23. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  24. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.

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

Answer key

  1. scale — in music
  2. shower — to wash
  3. capital — money
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. shower — rain
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. spring — of water
  8. row — to paddle
  9. stock — a soup base
  10. scale — size or range
  11. capital — a city
  12. clip — to cut
  13. straw — a straw man
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. straw — dry grass
  16. clip — for paper
  17. shower — a meteor shower
  18. clip — a video
  19. stock — goods
  20. spring — the season
  21. spring — a coil
  22. stock — shares
  23. scale — for weighing
  24. row — a line

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