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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 120 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: spring · face · pitch · deal · mate · degree · clip · capital

  1. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  4. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  5. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  17. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. Have you found your soul ________________?
  23. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  24. She had a strange look on her ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. deal — a big deal
  2. spring — a coil
  3. pitch — a sales talk
  4. pitch — completely
  5. face — to confront
  6. clip — to cut
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. deal — to handle
  9. capital — money
  10. degree — an amount
  11. mate — a friend
  12. capital — a city
  13. pitch — a sports field
  14. spring — of water
  15. degree — from a university
  16. spring — the season
  17. mate — to breed
  18. degree — temperature
  19. deal — an agreement
  20. clip — a video
  21. clip — for paper
  22. mate — a partner
  23. face — to point toward
  24. face — part of the head

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