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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: capital · game · pound · content · stock · perch · cold · spell

  1. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  2. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  6. That was a fun ________________.
  7. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. How do you ________________ your surname?
  10. The ________________ market has crashed.
  11. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  12. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  13. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  14. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  15. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  16. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  18. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.

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

Answer key

  1. pound — to hit hard
  2. game — wild animals
  3. cold — not warm
  4. cold — an illness
  5. stock — goods
  6. game — a match
  7. content — the amount
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. spell — letters
  10. stock — shares
  11. content — happy
  12. pound — a weight
  13. game — a kind of play
  14. perch — for a bird
  15. stock — a soup base
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. spell — magic
  18. perch — the fish
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. spell — a short time
  21. capital — money
  22. capital — a city
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. pound — for dogs

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