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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  7. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  8. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  9. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  12. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  13. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  17. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  23. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  24. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. face — to confront
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. cold — not warm
  5. spring — of water
  6. mine — an explosive
  7. net — in sport
  8. mine — belonging to me
  9. perch — the fish
  10. field — a subject
  11. last — finally
  12. net — after costs
  13. net — for catching
  14. field — for sport
  15. spring — the season
  16. mine — for digging
  17. last — final
  18. field — farmland
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. cold — an illness
  21. last — to go on
  22. face — to point toward
  23. face — part of the head
  24. perch — for a bird

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