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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: face · squash · pitch · bat · spell · wax · field · date

  1. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  2. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  3. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  4. How do you ________________ your surname?
  5. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  6. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  7. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  8. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  9. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  10. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  11. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  12. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  13. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  14. Have you settled on a ________________?
  15. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  16. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  17. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  23. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  24. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to point toward
  2. face — to confront
  3. pitch — a sales talk
  4. spell — letters
  5. wax — in the ear
  6. squash — the vegetable
  7. wax — to grow
  8. date — on the calendar
  9. face — part of the head
  10. spell — magic
  11. field — for sport
  12. pitch — completely
  13. squash — the sport
  14. date — on the calendar
  15. field — farmland
  16. pitch — a sports field
  17. squash — to crush
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. field — a subject
  21. bat — the animal
  22. wax — for sculpting
  23. spell — a short time
  24. date — the fruit

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