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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 120 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. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  3. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  4. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  5. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  6. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  13. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. 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. kid — child
  2. face — part of the head
  3. clip — for paper
  4. fall — to drop
  5. kid — to tease
  6. fall — to drop
  7. field — for sport
  8. face — to point toward
  9. court — for sport
  10. clip — a video
  11. clip — to cut
  12. fall — the season
  13. face — to confront
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. court — of a king
  16. field — farmland
  17. court — of law
  18. 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