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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 120 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. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  2. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  5. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  13. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. False peace will not ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — an illness
  2. face — to point toward
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. face — part of the head
  5. last — finally
  6. race — humankind
  7. chest — of your body
  8. content — the amount
  9. content — happy
  10. game — wild animals
  11. game — a match
  12. race — a contest
  13. last — final
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. bat — the animal
  17. game — a kind of play
  18. chest — of your body
  19. race — the arms race
  20. face — to confront
  21. cold — not warm
  22. last — to go on
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. chest — a box

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