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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. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  2. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  9. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  10. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  11. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  17. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  18. This piece is in a major ________________.
  19. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  24. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.

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

Answer key

  1. field — farmland
  2. face — part of the head
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. spell — letters
  5. key — for a lock
  6. cold — not warm
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. chair — to sit on
  9. spell — magic
  10. tear — to rip
  11. spell — a short time
  12. chair — a leader
  13. field — a subject
  14. board — a committee
  15. field — for sport
  16. board — to get on
  17. face — to point toward
  18. key — in music
  19. board — a flat piece
  20. cold — an illness
  21. face — to confront
  22. tear — from crying
  23. key — the most important part
  24. tear — from crying

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