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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: band · deal · roll · stem · cold · field · mark · capital

  1. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  3. We're on a ________________ here.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  7. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  11. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  14. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  15. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  16. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  17. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  18. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  19. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  20. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  23. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. capital — a big letter
  3. roll — on a roll
  4. band — a music group
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. mark — to pay attention
  7. field — farmland
  8. cold — an illness
  9. cold — not warm
  10. mark — a grade
  11. band — a ring
  12. field — for sport
  13. stem — a stem cell
  14. deal — a big deal
  15. band — a rubber band
  16. stem — to come from
  17. roll — a cake
  18. roll — a list
  19. deal — an agreement
  20. deal — to handle
  21. capital — money
  22. mark — a trace
  23. stem — of a plant
  24. capital — a city

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