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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. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  2. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  5. It's one o'clock ________________.
  6. I'll be taking the ________________.
  7. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  8. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  9. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  10. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  13. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  20. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  21. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  22. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. face — part of the head
  2. bark — a dog's sound
  3. file — a tool
  4. tear — to rip
  5. sharp — exactly
  6. tube — the underground
  7. face — to confront
  8. snap — to speak sharply
  9. tube — in a tire
  10. snap — to click
  11. tear — from crying
  12. sharp — clever
  13. snap — to snap out of it
  14. tear — from crying
  15. chest — of your body
  16. bark — to shout
  17. file — a line of people
  18. file — a document
  19. face — to point toward
  20. tube — a container
  21. sharp — with an edge
  22. bark — of a tree
  23. chest — of your body
  24. chest — a box

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