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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. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. This piece is in a major ________________.
  7. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  20. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  21. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  22. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  23. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  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. face — to point toward
  2. cold — an illness
  3. pound — for dogs
  4. game — a match
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. key — in music
  7. pound — a weight
  8. game — wild animals
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. field — a subject
  12. cold — not warm
  13. key — the most important part
  14. hand — in cards
  15. field — farmland
  16. field — for sport
  17. wax — for sculpting
  18. hand — help
  19. key — for a lock
  20. wax — to grow
  21. face — to confront
  22. wax — in the ear
  23. pound — to hit hard
  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