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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 116 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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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: straw · fall · face · rest · pitch · band · game · field

  1. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  2. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  3. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  4. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  5. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  9. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  10. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  11. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  12. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  13. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  14. That was a fun ________________.
  15. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  18. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  19. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  20. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  23. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  24. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. field — farmland
  3. fall — to drop
  4. pitch — a sports field
  5. pitch — a sales talk
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. band — a ring
  9. band — a rubber band
  10. fall — the season
  11. field — a subject
  12. pitch — completely
  13. face — to confront
  14. game — a match
  15. rest — what's left
  16. face — part of the head
  17. fall — to drop
  18. rest — what's left
  19. rest — a break
  20. field — for sport
  21. game — wild animals
  22. straw — to clutch at straws
  23. straw — dry grass
  24. face — to point toward

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