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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. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. You don't need to ________________ round.
  5. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  6. Don't do anything ________________.
  7. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  8. We're almost out of ________________.
  9. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  12. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  13. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. I can't ________________ this cold.
  16. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  19. There's no middle ________________.
  20. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  21. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  22. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  23. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  24. Add some ________________ pepper to it.

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

Answer key

  1. field — for sport
  2. clip — for paper
  3. field — farmland
  4. pop — to visit
  5. face — to point toward
  6. rash — hasty
  7. rash — a series
  8. pop — soda
  9. bass — the instrument
  10. clip — to cut
  11. bass — low music
  12. stand — on your feet
  13. face — to confront
  14. clip — a video
  15. stand — to bear
  16. ground — the earth
  17. field — a subject
  18. rash — on the skin
  19. ground — a position
  20. bass — the fish
  21. face — part of the head
  22. stand — for spectators
  23. pop — music
  24. ground — crushed

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