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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 · clip · bowl · face · file · lash · chest · court

  1. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  2. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  3. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  4. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  5. The ball is in your ________________.
  6. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  7. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  8. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  9. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  13. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  14. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  17. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  18. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  19. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  20. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  21. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. file — a tool
  3. clip — a video
  4. bowl — to roll
  5. court — for sport
  6. bowl — a dish
  7. clip — to cut
  8. file — a line of people
  9. lash — a whip stroke
  10. clip — for paper
  11. field — a subject
  12. bowl — a football final
  13. lash — an eyelash
  14. face — to confront
  15. chest — of your body
  16. field — farmland
  17. lash — to lash out
  18. court — of a king
  19. face — to point toward
  20. file — a document
  21. court — of law
  22. face — part of the head
  23. field — for sport
  24. chest — a box

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