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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: racket · date · clip · field · game · pop · roll · face

  1. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  2. We're on a ________________ here.
  3. That was a fun ________________.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  6. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  7. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  8. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  12. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  13. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  16. You don't need to ________________ round.
  17. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  18. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  19. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  20. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  21. We're almost out of ________________.
  22. Have you settled on a ________________?
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to point toward
  2. roll — on a roll
  3. game — a match
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. date — the fruit
  6. field — farmland
  7. racket — for tennis
  8. pop — music
  9. clip — a video
  10. clip — to cut
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. racket — a loud noise
  13. field — a subject
  14. clip — for paper
  15. face — part of the head
  16. pop — to visit
  17. face — to confront
  18. field — for sport
  19. roll — a cake
  20. roll — a list
  21. pop — soda
  22. date — on the calendar
  23. game — wild animals
  24. racket — for tennis

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