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

Word bank: field · face · cold · mine · stem · branch · chest · lash

  1. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  4. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  9. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  12. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  15. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  16. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  17. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  18. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  19. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  24. Biology is a ________________ of science.

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

Answer key

  1. stem — to come from
  2. chest — of your body
  3. mine — an explosive
  4. lash — to lash out
  5. cold — an illness
  6. chest — of your body
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. field — a subject
  9. field — farmland
  10. cold — not warm
  11. branch — of a tree
  12. lash — a whip stroke
  13. chest — a box
  14. stem — of a plant
  15. mine — for digging
  16. stem — a stem cell
  17. lash — an eyelash
  18. face — part of the head
  19. face — to confront
  20. field — for sport
  21. face — to point toward
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. branch — of a bank
  24. branch — a division

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