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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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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: land · capital · foot · can · file · cold · rock · last

  1. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  5. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  12. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  15. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  21. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  22. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  23. False peace will not ________________.
  24. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.

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

Answer key

  1. can — to be able to
  2. land — to come down
  3. file — a tool
  4. rock — to move gently
  5. capital — money
  6. cold — not warm
  7. capital — a city
  8. last — final
  9. foot — part of the body
  10. file — a line of people
  11. rock — music
  12. file — a document
  13. cold — an illness
  14. foot — a measure
  15. land — ground
  16. land — a country
  17. last — finally
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. foot — the bottom
  21. can — a tin
  22. rock — a stone
  23. last — to go on
  24. can — a tin

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