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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. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  2. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  5. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  6. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  11. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  12. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  13. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  14. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  15. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  16. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  17. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  18. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  19. My father caught me by the ________________.
  20. We're on a ________________ here.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  23. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  24. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — of water
  2. fall — to drop
  3. content — happy
  4. content — the amount
  5. roll — a cake
  6. face — to confront
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. row — to paddle
  9. spring — a coil
  10. row — a line
  11. arm — part of the body
  12. roll — a list
  13. content — videos and posts
  14. bark — to shout
  15. face — part of the head
  16. face — to point toward
  17. bark — a dog's sound
  18. bark — of a tree
  19. arm — part of the body
  20. roll — on a roll
  21. spring — the season
  22. arm — a part of something
  23. fall — to drop
  24. fall — the season

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