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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. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  3. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  4. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  7. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  14. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  17. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  18. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  19. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  20. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  21. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. cap — of ice
  3. face — to point toward
  4. net — in sport
  5. clip — for paper
  6. court — of law
  7. straw — to clutch at straws
  8. net — for catching
  9. cap — a hat
  10. field — a subject
  11. clip — to cut
  12. field — farmland
  13. stem — a stem cell
  14. net — after costs
  15. clip — a video
  16. court — of a king
  17. face — part of the head
  18. face — to confront
  19. straw — dry grass
  20. stem — to come from
  21. stem — of a plant
  22. court — for sport
  23. cap — a lid
  24. straw — a straw man

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