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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. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  6. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  10. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  11. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  12. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  13. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  14. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. face — part of the head
  2. field — a subject
  3. dip — a sauce
  4. hand — in cards
  5. kid — child
  6. wake — to stop sleeping
  7. wind — moving air
  8. file — a document
  9. wake — before a funeral
  10. wind — to turn a key
  11. wake — a trail
  12. dip — to sink
  13. dip — to dunk
  14. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  15. hand — help
  16. wind — moving air
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. file — a tool
  19. face — to confront
  20. field — farmland
  21. face — to point toward
  22. kid — to tease
  23. field — for sport
  24. file — a line of people

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