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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. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  2. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  5. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  6. Don't do anything ________________.
  7. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  8. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. Where did you ________________ them?
  16. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  24. He refilled his coffee ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. face — to point toward
  3. cold — an illness
  4. mug — a face
  5. band — a rubber band
  6. rash — hasty
  7. rash — on the skin
  8. band — a ring
  9. tear — to rip
  10. face — to confront
  11. field — a subject
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. wind — moving air
  14. field — for sport
  15. mug — to rob
  16. rash — a series
  17. tear — from crying
  18. tear — from crying
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. field — farmland
  21. wind — moving air
  22. cold — not warm
  23. face — part of the head
  24. mug — a cup

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