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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: cold · bulb · pop · bound · capital · mate · present · land

  1. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  2. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  3. You don't need to ________________ round.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  6. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  9. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  10. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  11. Have you found your soul ________________?
  12. The light ________________ burned out.
  13. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  14. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  15. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  16. We're almost out of ________________.
  17. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. That was ________________ to happen.
  21. I've got to change the light ________________.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. When are we going to ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a city
  2. bulb — of a plant
  3. pop — to visit
  4. cold — an illness
  5. present — there
  6. present — the time now
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. mate — to breed
  9. bound — obliged
  10. mate — a friend
  11. mate — a partner
  12. bulb — for light
  13. pop — music
  14. land — ground
  15. present — a gift
  16. pop — soda
  17. bound — tied together
  18. cold — not warm
  19. land — a country
  20. bound — certain
  21. bulb — for light
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. capital — money
  24. land — to come down

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