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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. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. Did you ________________ the meat?
  3. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  7. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  10. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  11. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  12. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  13. It's one o'clock ________________.
  14. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. season — to add flavour
  3. face — to point toward
  4. cold — not warm
  5. cold — an illness
  6. sharp — with an edge
  7. season — in sport
  8. field — farmland
  9. bore — to tire
  10. bore — to drill
  11. sharp — clever
  12. season — of the year
  13. sharp — exactly
  14. face — part of the head
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. field — a subject
  17. field — for sport
  18. bore — gave birth

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