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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 · craft · wound · kid · pop · face · spell

  1. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  5. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  6. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  7. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  8. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. How do you ________________ your surname?
  16. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  17. We're almost out of ________________.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  21. You don't need to ________________ round.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  24. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. craft — a handicraft
  3. kid — child
  4. craft — a skill
  5. spell — magic
  6. craft — boats
  7. spell — a short time
  8. pop — music
  9. kid — to tease
  10. face — part of the head
  11. clip — for paper
  12. field — farmland
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. clip — a video
  15. spell — letters
  16. face — to point toward
  17. pop — soda
  18. field — for sport
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. wound — an injury
  21. pop — to visit
  22. wound — an injury
  23. clip — to cut
  24. field — a subject

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