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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 stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  6. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  7. She's very handy with a ________________.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  11. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  12. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  13. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  14. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  15. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  16. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  19. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  20. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  21. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  24. He works in a ________________ mill.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. march — music
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. field — a subject
  5. lash — to lash out
  6. face — to point toward
  7. saw — the tool
  8. march — the month
  9. field — farmland
  10. stem — to come from
  11. saw — past of 'see'
  12. content — happy
  13. lash — an eyelash
  14. stem — a stem cell
  15. row — a line
  16. face — to confront
  17. row — to paddle
  18. lash — a whip stroke
  19. content — the amount
  20. stem — of a plant
  21. content — videos and posts
  22. march — the month
  23. face — part of the head
  24. saw — the tool

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