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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  8. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  9. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. I'll be taking the ________________.
  14. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  15. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  19. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  20. How do you ________________ your surname?
  21. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  24. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. face — to point toward
  3. last — final
  4. field — farmland
  5. cold — the Cold War
  6. field — a subject
  7. tear — from crying
  8. tube — a container
  9. last — finally
  10. last — to go on
  11. field — for sport
  12. cold — an illness
  13. tube — the underground
  14. tear — from crying
  15. spell — a short time
  16. tear — to rip
  17. squash — to crush
  18. squash — the vegetable
  19. squash — the sport
  20. spell — letters
  21. tube — in a tire
  22. face — part of the head
  23. spell — magic
  24. face — to confront

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