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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 120 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 · tear · mouse · row · spring · cold · rash

  1. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  4. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  7. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  16. Don't do anything ________________.
  17. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  20. Should I buy a wireless ________________?
  21. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  22. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  23. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. cold — not warm
  3. rash — a series
  4. tear — to rip
  5. spring — the season
  6. spring — a coil
  7. face — to point toward
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. row — a quarrel
  10. cold — an illness
  11. face — to confront
  12. field — for sport
  13. face — part of the head
  14. tear — from crying
  15. rash — on the skin
  16. rash — hasty
  17. field — a subject
  18. field — farmland
  19. tear — from crying
  20. mouse — for a computer
  21. mouse — the animal
  22. spring — of water
  23. mouse — the animal
  24. row — to paddle

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