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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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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: cell · pop · clip · face · wind · tear · root · field

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  3. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. We're almost out of ________________.
  6. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  7. You don't need to ________________ round.
  8. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  9. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  15. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  21. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  22. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  23. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  24. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.

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

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. wind — moving air
  3. face — to point toward
  4. clip — a video
  5. pop — soda
  6. face — to confront
  7. pop — to visit
  8. face — part of the head
  9. field — for sport
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. pop — music
  12. field — a subject
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. root — of a plant
  15. cell — a phone
  16. tear — from crying
  17. cell — in biology
  18. tear — from crying
  19. tear — to rip
  20. root — of a word
  21. wind — moving air
  22. root — the cause
  23. field — farmland
  24. clip — to cut

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