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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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  3. False peace will not ________________.
  4. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  5. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  11. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  12. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  15. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  16. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  17. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  18. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  21. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  22. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  23. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  24. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. face — to confront
  3. last — to go on
  4. lie — an untruth
  5. lie — to recline
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. bat — the animal
  9. snap — to click
  10. prune — to trim
  11. face — part of the head
  12. wound — an injury
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. prune — the fruit
  15. snap — to speak sharply
  16. last — finally
  17. face — to point toward
  18. last — final
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. prune — to trim
  21. lie — an untruth
  22. snap — to snap out of it
  23. wound — an injury
  24. band — a music group

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