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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  2. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  16. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  17. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  18. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.

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

Answer key

  1. field — a subject
  2. bark — to shout
  3. field — farmland
  4. cold — not warm
  5. file — a tool
  6. face — to point toward
  7. file — a line of people
  8. cold — an illness
  9. file — a document
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. face — part of the head
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. field — for sport
  15. face — to confront
  16. mouse — the animal
  17. mouse — for a computer
  18. mouse — the animal

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