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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 116 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. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  2. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  3. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  4. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  5. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  14. Have you found your soul ________________?
  15. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  16. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  17. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  18. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  21. The ________________ took off on time.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  24. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — to breed
  2. face — to point toward
  3. stick — a piece of wood
  4. stick — a piece of wood
  5. snap — to snap out of it
  6. cold — an illness
  7. tear — from crying
  8. snap — to speak sharply
  9. snap — to click
  10. face — part of the head
  11. cold — not warm
  12. tear — to rip
  13. face — to confront
  14. mate — a partner
  15. stick — to attach or keep to
  16. field — a subject
  17. field — for sport
  18. field — farmland
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. mate — a friend
  21. plane — an aircraft
  22. tear — from crying
  23. plane — in geometry
  24. plane — a tool

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