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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: cold · field · capital · game · stock · coach · can · pitch

  1. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  6. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. The ________________ market has crashed.
  14. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  15. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  16. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. Have you met the new head ________________?
  23. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. stock — a soup base
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. game — wild animals
  4. cold — not warm
  5. can — to be able to
  6. stock — goods
  7. field — for sport
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. pitch — completely
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. can — a tin
  12. field — farmland
  13. stock — shares
  14. pitch — a sales talk
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. coach — pulled by horses
  17. game — a match
  18. can — a tin
  19. capital — a city
  20. field — a subject
  21. capital — money
  22. coach — a trainer
  23. pitch — a sports field
  24. cold — an illness

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