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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. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  8. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  9. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  10. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  11. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  12. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  13. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  14. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  15. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  16. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  17. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  18. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  19. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  20. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  21. This piece is in a major ________________.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. spring — the season
  3. prune — to trim
  4. field — farmland
  5. prune — the fruit
  6. field — a subject
  7. pitch — completely
  8. spring — a coil
  9. pitch — a sports field
  10. root — of a plant
  11. net — in sport
  12. pitch — a sales talk
  13. face — part of the head
  14. field — for sport
  15. key — for a lock
  16. prune — to trim
  17. root — of a word
  18. key — the most important part
  19. face — to point toward
  20. net — after costs
  21. key — in music
  22. spring — of water
  23. net — for catching
  24. root — the cause

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