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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. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  4. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  5. She's very handy with a ________________.
  6. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  7. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  8. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  9. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  10. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  13. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  14. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  15. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  16. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  17. He works in a ________________ mill.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  24. I seem to be developing a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. rash — hasty
  3. face — to point toward
  4. saw — past of 'see'
  5. saw — the tool
  6. pit — a fruit stone
  7. face — part of the head
  8. cell — a phone
  9. race — the arms race
  10. drill — the tool
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. drill — a practice
  13. rash — a series
  14. race — a contest
  15. pit — a hole
  16. pit — in a race
  17. saw — the tool
  18. clip — to cut
  19. clip — for paper
  20. cell — in biology
  21. drill — army training
  22. clip — a video
  23. race — humankind
  24. rash — on the skin

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