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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. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  3. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  6. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  7. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  8. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  9. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  10. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  11. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  16. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  17. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  18. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  21. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. row — a quarrel
  3. face — to point toward
  4. field — farmland
  5. dip — to sink
  6. prune — to trim
  7. prune — the fruit
  8. face — part of the head
  9. row — to paddle
  10. stick — a piece of wood
  11. prune — to trim
  12. field — a subject
  13. cold — an illness
  14. degree — temperature
  15. degree — from a university
  16. stick — to attach or keep to
  17. row — a line
  18. dip — to dunk
  19. degree — an amount
  20. dip — a sauce
  21. stick — a piece of wood
  22. cold — not warm
  23. field — for sport
  24. cold — the Cold War

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