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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. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  2. He was locked up in a ________________.
  3. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  4. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  5. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. I'll be taking the ________________.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  11. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  12. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  13. That was ________________ to happen.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  19. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  24. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.

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

Answer key

  1. bound — tied together
  2. cell — in a prison
  3. degree — from a university
  4. field — for sport
  5. face — to confront
  6. cold — an illness
  7. tube — the underground
  8. field — a subject
  9. cold — not warm
  10. tube — in a tire
  11. degree — an amount
  12. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  13. bound — certain
  14. cell — in biology
  15. bound — obliged
  16. face — part of the head
  17. field — farmland
  18. face — to point toward
  19. cell — a phone
  20. kid — child
  21. kid — to tease
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. degree — temperature
  24. tube — a container

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