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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 in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  2. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  3. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  4. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  9. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  10. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  11. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  12. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  13. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  14. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  15. My father caught me by the ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.

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

Answer key

  1. face — part of the head
  2. prune — the fruit
  3. arm — part of the body
  4. clip — to cut
  5. cold — an illness
  6. face — to point toward
  7. cold — not warm
  8. clip — for paper
  9. face — to confront
  10. prune — to trim
  11. prune — to trim
  12. cap — of ice
  13. cap — a hat
  14. cap — a lid
  15. arm — part of the body
  16. clip — a video
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. arm — a part of something

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