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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. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  12. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  13. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  14. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  19. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  23. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. staff — employees
  2. field — farmland
  3. face — part of the head
  4. cold — an illness
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. staff — a stick
  7. cold — not warm
  8. field — for sport
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. hand — help
  11. bear — to put up with
  12. rest — what's left
  13. bear — the animal
  14. face — to point toward
  15. field — a subject
  16. bear — the animal
  17. kid — to tease
  18. face — to confront
  19. rest — a break
  20. kid — child
  21. hand — in cards
  22. staff — employees
  23. rest — what's left
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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