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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: degree · wound · face · capital · pitch · wind · cap · coach

  1. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  2. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  3. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  4. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  5. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  6. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  9. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  10. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  11. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  12. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  13. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. Have you met the new head ________________?
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  22. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. pitch — a sales talk
  2. coach — pulled by horses
  3. face — to confront
  4. face — part of the head
  5. wind — to turn a key
  6. cap — a hat
  7. degree — from a university
  8. coach — a trainer
  9. pitch — a sports field
  10. face — to point toward
  11. cap — of ice
  12. degree — an amount
  13. capital — money
  14. wind — moving air
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. pitch — completely
  17. cap — a lid
  18. wound — an injury
  19. capital — a big letter
  20. wind — moving air
  21. wound — an injury
  22. degree — temperature
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. capital — a city

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