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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: hand · net · pop · face · chair · bark · field · march

  1. We're almost out of ________________.
  2. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  3. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  6. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  7. You don't need to ________________ round.
  8. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  9. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  13. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  14. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  15. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  16. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  17. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  18. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  24. What was your ________________ profit last year?

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

Answer key

  1. pop — soda
  2. chair — a professorship
  3. face — to confront
  4. field — a subject
  5. bark — of a tree
  6. face — part of the head
  7. pop — to visit
  8. field — farmland
  9. face — to point toward
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. march — the month
  12. net — in sport
  13. chair — a leader
  14. pop — music
  15. bark — a dog's sound
  16. march — music
  17. bark — to shout
  18. march — the month
  19. hand — in cards
  20. hand — help
  21. field — for sport
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. net — for catching
  24. net — after costs

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