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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. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  2. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  3. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  7. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  8. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  9. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  10. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  13. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  14. She's very handy with a ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  20. Where did you ________________ them?
  21. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  22. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  23. He works in a ________________ mill.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. board — a flat piece
  2. mug — a face
  3. face — to point toward
  4. field — a subject
  5. cold — not warm
  6. face — to confront
  7. field — for sport
  8. saw — past of 'see'
  9. capital — money
  10. board — to get on
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. wind — moving air
  13. face — part of the head
  14. saw — the tool
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. field — farmland
  18. capital — a city
  19. board — a committee
  20. mug — to rob
  21. wind — moving air
  22. mug — a cup
  23. saw — the tool
  24. cold — an illness

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