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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. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  3. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  4. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  13. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  14. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  15. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  16. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  17. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  18. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  19. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  20. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  21. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  22. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. He hit the ball with his ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. game — wild animals
  3. racket — for tennis
  4. row — a quarrel
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. field — farmland
  7. game — a match
  8. row — a line
  9. wound — an injury
  10. squash — the sport
  11. field — for sport
  12. cap — of ice
  13. cap — a lid
  14. squash — to crush
  15. squash — the vegetable
  16. racket — a loud noise
  17. face — part of the head
  18. field — a subject
  19. cap — a hat
  20. wound — an injury
  21. wound — past of 'wind'
  22. face — to point toward
  23. row — to paddle
  24. racket — for tennis

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