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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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  3. It's one o'clock ________________.
  4. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  5. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  6. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  9. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  10. My father caught me by the ________________.
  11. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  12. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  13. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  16. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  17. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. False peace will not ________________.
  22. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  23. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. arm — part of the body
  3. sharp — exactly
  4. mine — an explosive
  5. face — to point toward
  6. scale — in music
  7. bat — the animal
  8. file — a tool
  9. sharp — clever
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. face — part of the head
  12. scale — size or range
  13. file — a document
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. sharp — with an edge
  16. mine — belonging to me
  17. face — to confront
  18. file — a line of people
  19. last — finally
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. last — to go on
  22. arm — a part of something
  23. scale — for weighing
  24. mine — for digging

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