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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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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: content · face · racket · cold · field · stem · chest · land

  1. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  4. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  9. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  10. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  11. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  16. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  23. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. racket — for tennis
  2. chest — of your body
  3. field — a subject
  4. face — part of the head
  5. chest — of your body
  6. land — a country
  7. cold — an illness
  8. land — ground
  9. face — to point toward
  10. racket — a loud noise
  11. racket — for tennis
  12. content — the amount
  13. land — to come down
  14. chest — a box
  15. stem — a stem cell
  16. stem — to come from
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. field — farmland
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. face — to confront
  21. field — for sport
  22. stem — of a plant
  23. content — happy
  24. cold — not warm

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