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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: deal · face · date · ground · straw · capital · game · cold

  1. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  2. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  3. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  4. There's no middle ________________.
  5. Have you settled on a ________________?
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  9. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  12. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  13. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  14. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  22. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  23. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a kind of play
  2. face — part of the head
  3. deal — an agreement
  4. ground — a position
  5. date — on the calendar
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. face — to point toward
  9. face — to confront
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. date — the fruit
  12. deal — a big deal
  13. game — wild animals
  14. date — on the calendar
  15. game — a match
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. cold — an illness
  18. cold — not warm
  19. straw — a straw man
  20. capital — a city
  21. ground — crushed
  22. ground — the earth
  23. deal — to handle
  24. capital — money

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