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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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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: wound · bowl · file · capital · pop · lean · bulb · land

  1. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  2. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  5. The light ________________ burned out.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. You don't need to ________________ round.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. I've got to change the light ________________.
  10. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  14. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  15. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  18. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  19. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  20. We're almost out of ________________.
  21. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  22. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  23. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — music
  2. lean — to bend
  3. capital — a city
  4. wound — an injury
  5. bulb — for light
  6. land — ground
  7. pop — to visit
  8. capital — money
  9. bulb — for light
  10. bowl — a dish
  11. land — to come down
  12. wound — an injury
  13. bulb — of a plant
  14. wound — past of 'wind'
  15. land — a country
  16. file — a line of people
  17. file — a tool
  18. bowl — to roll
  19. capital — a big letter
  20. pop — soda
  21. lean — to rest against
  22. lean — thin
  23. bowl — a football final
  24. file — a document

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