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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: capital · kid · march · land · cold · roll · pass · perch

  1. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  4. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. We're on a ________________ here.
  7. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  10. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  11. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  12. When are we going to ________________?
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  19. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  20. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  21. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  22. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. capital — money
  3. roll — a cake
  4. cold — the Cold War
  5. cold — an illness
  6. roll — on a roll
  7. kid — child
  8. march — the month
  9. roll — a list
  10. perch — for a bird
  11. perch — the fish
  12. land — to come down
  13. capital — a city
  14. pass — to spend time
  15. land — ground
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. kid — to tease
  18. perch — for a bird
  19. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  20. pass — to succeed
  21. march — music
  22. pass — a permit
  23. land — a country
  24. cold — not warm

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