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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. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  3. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  4. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  5. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  6. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  7. He has no idea where the ________________ is.
  8. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  11. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  14. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  17. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. field — a subject
  3. face — part of the head
  4. file — a line of people
  5. file — a tool
  6. fall — to drop
  7. safe — a strongbox
  8. pass — to succeed
  9. field — for sport
  10. fall — to drop
  11. safe — out of danger
  12. cold — not warm
  13. fall — the season
  14. pass — a permit
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. pass — to spend time
  17. safe — out of danger
  18. cold — an illness
  19. file — a document
  20. field — farmland
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. face — to point toward
  24. bat — the animal

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