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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. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. False peace will not ________________.
  5. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  6. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  7. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  10. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  11. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  12. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  13. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  17. The ________________ went through the wall.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. last — finally
  2. file — a tool
  3. field — farmland
  4. last — to go on
  5. nail — for a hammer
  6. face — to point toward
  7. face — part of the head
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. racket — for tennis
  10. racket — for tennis
  11. face — to confront
  12. racket — a loud noise
  13. last — final
  14. file — a line of people
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. field — for sport
  17. nail — for a hammer
  18. cold — not warm
  19. nail — on a finger
  20. cold — an illness
  21. field — a subject
  22. file — a document
  23. capital — money
  24. capital — a city

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