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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: spring · face · hand · field · perch · rest · court · bat

  1. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  4. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  7. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  13. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  19. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  20. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  21. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. The ball is in your ________________.
  24. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. hand — help
  3. rest — what's left
  4. field — farmland
  5. bat — the animal
  6. rest — a break
  7. bat — for baseball
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. face — to point toward
  10. field — a subject
  11. field — for sport
  12. perch — for a bird
  13. court — of law
  14. spring — of water
  15. court — of a king
  16. hand — in cards
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. spring — a coil
  19. perch — the fish
  20. spring — the season
  21. rest — what's left
  22. face — part of the head
  23. court — for sport
  24. perch — for a bird

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