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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. There's no middle ________________.
  2. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  3. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  4. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  8. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  9. The King held a masked ________________.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  12. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  13. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

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

Answer key

  1. ground — a position
  2. ground — the earth
  3. face — to point toward
  4. chest — a box
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. chest — of your body
  7. chest — of your body
  8. ball — a great time
  9. ball — a dance
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. face — part of the head
  12. face — to confront
  13. ball — a round shape
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. kid — child
  17. kid — to tease
  18. hand — help
  19. ground — crushed
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. hand — in cards
  22. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  23. row — a line
  24. row — to paddle

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