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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. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  3. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  4. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  5. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  6. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  7. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  8. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  9. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  10. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  11. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  12. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  13. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  14. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  15. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  18. I'll be taking the ________________.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  22. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  23. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to point toward
  2. field — for sport
  3. chair — to sit on
  4. lie — an untruth
  5. field — farmland
  6. race — a contest
  7. band — a ring
  8. chair — a leader
  9. race — humankind
  10. race — the arms race
  11. tube — in a tire
  12. clip — a video
  13. face — to confront
  14. lie — an untruth
  15. chair — a professorship
  16. field — a subject
  17. face — part of the head
  18. tube — the underground
  19. clip — to cut
  20. band — a music group
  21. clip — for paper
  22. lie — to recline
  23. tube — a container
  24. band — a rubber band

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