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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: bark · rash · face · wax · capital · stock · degree · field

  1. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  4. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  5. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  8. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  9. The ________________ market has crashed.
  10. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  11. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  16. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  20. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  21. Don't do anything ________________.
  22. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  23. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  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. capital — a big letter
  2. field — for sport
  3. wax — to grow
  4. stock — a soup base
  5. rash — a series
  6. capital — a city
  7. wax — in the ear
  8. stock — goods
  9. stock — shares
  10. degree — an amount
  11. face — to confront
  12. bark — to shout
  13. rash — on the skin
  14. capital — money
  15. face — part of the head
  16. bark — of a tree
  17. degree — from a university
  18. degree — temperature
  19. bark — a dog's sound
  20. face — to point toward
  21. rash — hasty
  22. field — farmland
  23. wax — for sculpting
  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