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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 124 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: deal · mouse · cold · face · field · capital · kid · pop

  1. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. We're almost out of ________________.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  11. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  12. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  13. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  21. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  22. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  23. You don't need to ________________ round.
  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. face — to confront
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. field — a subject
  4. pop — soda
  5. field — farmland
  6. kid — child
  7. field — for sport
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. capital — a city
  10. face — part of the head
  11. deal — a big deal
  12. mouse — for a computer
  13. deal — an agreement
  14. capital — money
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. pop — music
  17. kid — to tease
  18. face — to point toward
  19. cold — not warm
  20. mouse — the animal
  21. deal — to handle
  22. mouse — the animal
  23. pop — to visit
  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