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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 116 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: capital · stock · patient · wind · cold · clip · fall · spell

  1. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  2. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  14. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  15. The ________________ market has crashed.
  16. How do you ________________ your surname?
  17. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  18. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — goods
  2. patient — a sick person
  3. cold — an illness
  4. cold — not warm
  5. wind — moving air
  6. capital — money
  7. spell — a short time
  8. clip — for paper
  9. spell — magic
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. fall — to drop
  14. patient — a sick person
  15. stock — shares
  16. spell — letters
  17. patient — calm and waiting
  18. stock — a soup base
  19. clip — to cut
  20. fall — the season
  21. wind — moving air
  22. clip — a video
  23. capital — a city
  24. fall — to drop

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