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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. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. False peace will not ________________.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  7. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  10. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  11. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  12. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  15. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  16. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  19. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  20. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  21. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  22. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. There's no middle ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. face — part of the head
  2. spring — the season
  3. last — to go on
  4. wound — an injury
  5. spell — letters
  6. ground — crushed
  7. bark — a dog's sound
  8. ground — the earth
  9. face — to point toward
  10. spring — a coil
  11. bark — of a tree
  12. last — final
  13. spell — magic
  14. face — to confront
  15. row — to paddle
  16. bark — to shout
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. spell — a short time
  19. wound — an injury
  20. row — a line
  21. row — a quarrel
  22. last — finally
  23. spring — of water
  24. ground — a position

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