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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: pitcher · spring · capital · date · content · wound · rest · stock

  1. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  2. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. He is an ace ________________.
  10. The ________________ market has crashed.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  14. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  15. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  16. Have you settled on a ________________?
  17. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  18. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  19. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  20. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  21. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  24. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.

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

Answer key

  1. wound — an injury
  2. date — on the calendar
  3. spring — of water
  4. capital — money
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. spring — the season
  7. pitcher — a jug
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. pitcher — in baseball
  10. stock — shares
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. capital — a city
  13. stock — goods
  14. content — happy
  15. stock — a soup base
  16. date — on the calendar
  17. date — the fruit
  18. wound — an injury
  19. rest — a break
  20. rest — what's left
  21. content — the amount
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. spring — a coil
  24. rest — what's left

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