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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. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  4. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  5. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  6. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  7. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  8. The King held a masked ________________.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  15. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  19. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  23. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  24. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. chest — of your body
  3. fine — high quality
  4. fine — all right
  5. ball — a round shape
  6. face — to point toward
  7. court — of law
  8. ball — a dance
  9. game — a match
  10. field — for sport
  11. court — for sport
  12. game — wild animals
  13. chest — a box
  14. cell — in biology
  15. field — a subject
  16. face — part of the head
  17. chest — of your body
  18. fine — a penalty
  19. cell — a phone
  20. court — of a king
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. game — a kind of play
  23. ball — a great time
  24. field — farmland

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