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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: capital · suit · field · hand · bat · face · swing · wax

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  9. When will it ________________ you to start?
  10. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  11. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  12. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  21. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  22. David sat on the ________________.
  23. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. face — to confront
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. wax — to grow
  5. bat — the animal
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. capital — money
  8. suit — in cards
  9. suit — to fit
  10. wax — for sculpting
  11. suit — clothes
  12. swing — music
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. field — for sport
  15. face — to point toward
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. hand — in cards
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. capital — a city
  20. face — part of the head
  21. swing — in golf
  22. swing — to play on
  23. field — farmland
  24. field — a subject

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