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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: face · stick · wax · capital · cap · spell · chest · cold

  1. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  3. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  11. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  12. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  13. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  14. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  15. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  16. How do you ________________ your surname?
  17. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  18. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  19. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  20. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  21. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  22. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  23. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  24. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. wax — to grow
  3. chest — of your body
  4. cold — not warm
  5. chest — a box
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. capital — a city
  10. face — to point toward
  11. spell — a short time
  12. face — to confront
  13. stick — a piece of wood
  14. chest — of your body
  15. capital — money
  16. spell — letters
  17. face — part of the head
  18. spell — magic
  19. cap — a hat
  20. wax — for sculpting
  21. stick — to attach or keep to
  22. cap — of ice
  23. stick — a piece of wood
  24. cap — a lid

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