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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. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  2. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  3. My mare is ________________ in color.
  4. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  5. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  6. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  7. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  8. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  9. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  12. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  15. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  24. The King held a masked ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a great time
  2. face — to point toward
  3. bay — a horse colour
  4. ball — a round shape
  5. clip — for paper
  6. clip — to cut
  7. tube — in a tire
  8. face — to confront
  9. face — part of the head
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. tube — a container
  12. bay — a part of the sea
  13. cold — an illness
  14. clip — a video
  15. stick — to attach or keep to
  16. cold — not warm
  17. bay — to keep at bay
  18. bat — the animal
  19. stick — a piece of wood
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. tube — the underground
  23. stick — a piece of wood
  24. ball — a dance

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