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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: cap · field · pop · cold · face · bat · vault · scale

  1. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  2. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  5. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  6. You don't need to ________________ round.
  7. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  8. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  11. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  16. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  17. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  18. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  19. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  22. We're almost out of ________________.
  23. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — of ice
  2. face — to point toward
  3. cold — an illness
  4. vault — a safe
  5. scale — size or range
  6. pop — to visit
  7. scale — for weighing
  8. cap — a lid
  9. field — for sport
  10. bat — in an idiom
  11. vault — an arched ceiling
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. field — farmland
  14. bat — the animal
  15. cap — a hat
  16. pop — music
  17. scale — in music
  18. vault — in gymnastics
  19. field — a subject
  20. cold — not warm
  21. face — to confront
  22. pop — soda
  23. face — part of the head
  24. cold — the Cold War

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