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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: field · face · staff · game · mouse · season · drill · clip

  1. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  2. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  3. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  4. Did you ________________ the meat?
  5. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  6. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  11. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  15. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  18. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  19. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  20. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  23. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  24. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.

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

Answer key

  1. staff — a stick
  2. face — to point toward
  3. field — farmland
  4. season — to add flavour
  5. drill — the tool
  6. mouse — the animal
  7. clip — a video
  8. game — wild animals
  9. game — a match
  10. face — to confront
  11. game — a kind of play
  12. clip — to cut
  13. field — a subject
  14. staff — employees
  15. drill — a practice
  16. clip — for paper
  17. mouse — the animal
  18. drill — army training
  19. mouse — for a computer
  20. season — in sport
  21. field — for sport
  22. season — of the year
  23. face — part of the head
  24. staff — employees

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