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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 116 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: tube · trunk · cold · capital · deal · stock · field · pound

  1. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  4. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  5. I'll be taking the ________________.
  6. The ________________ market has crashed.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  10. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  11. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  12. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  13. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  16. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  19. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  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. deal — an agreement
  2. capital — a city
  3. trunk — of an elephant
  4. pound — to hit hard
  5. tube — the underground
  6. stock — shares
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. cold — an illness
  9. pound — a weight
  10. tube — in a tire
  11. tube — a container
  12. stock — goods
  13. trunk — of a car
  14. capital — money
  15. pound — for dogs
  16. stock — a soup base
  17. cold — not warm
  18. deal — to handle
  19. deal — a big deal
  20. field — farmland
  21. trunk — of a tree
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. field — for sport
  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