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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.

Words on the sheet
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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: bark · spring · cold · lash · net · field · face · march

  1. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  5. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  6. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  7. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  8. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  9. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  14. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  15. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  16. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  17. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  18. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  19. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  22. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. What was your ________________ profit last year?

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. field — farmland
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. spring — of water
  5. lash — a whip stroke
  6. march — the month
  7. field — a subject
  8. face — part of the head
  9. lash — to lash out
  10. cold — not warm
  11. spring — a coil
  12. cold — an illness
  13. field — for sport
  14. net — in sport
  15. net — for catching
  16. march — music
  17. lash — an eyelash
  18. bark — of a tree
  19. face — to point toward
  20. spring — the season
  21. bark — to shout
  22. bark — a dog's sound
  23. march — the month
  24. net — after costs

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