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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 120 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 ________________ went through the wall.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  4. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  5. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  10. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  11. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  12. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  13. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  14. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. She had a strange look on her ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. nail — for a hammer
  2. chest — of your body
  3. lean — thin
  4. nail — on a finger
  5. field — for sport
  6. field — farmland
  7. field — a subject
  8. content — the amount
  9. lean — to bend
  10. content — happy
  11. face — to point toward
  12. lean — to rest against
  13. race — a contest
  14. nail — for a hammer
  15. race — humankind
  16. race — the arms race
  17. bat — the animal
  18. chest — a box
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. chest — of your body
  22. face — to confront
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. face — part of the head

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