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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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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. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  6. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  7. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. Have you settled on a ________________?
  11. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. David sat on the ________________.
  14. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  15. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  16. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  17. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  18. Have you met the new head ________________?
  19. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  20. There's no middle ________________.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  23. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to point toward
  2. ground — crushed
  3. bark — a dog's sound
  4. field — for sport
  5. date — the fruit
  6. bark — to shout
  7. ground — the earth
  8. field — farmland
  9. wind — moving air
  10. date — on the calendar
  11. face — part of the head
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. swing — to play on
  14. swing — in golf
  15. coach — a trainer
  16. face — to confront
  17. coach — pulled by horses
  18. coach — a trainer
  19. swing — music
  20. ground — a position
  21. field — a subject
  22. bark — of a tree
  23. date — on the calendar
  24. wind — moving air

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