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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. I'll be taking the ________________.
  2. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  3. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  4. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  5. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  6. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  7. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  8. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  9. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  10. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  11. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. This piece is in a major ________________.
  14. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  15. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  16. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  20. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  21. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  24. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — the underground
  2. cold — an illness
  3. key — for a lock
  4. tube — in a tire
  5. key — the most important part
  6. face — to confront
  7. tube — a container
  8. straw — a straw man
  9. dip — to sink
  10. snap — to snap out of it
  11. bark — a dog's sound
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. key — in music
  14. bark — of a tree
  15. snap — to click
  16. dip — to dunk
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. snap — to speak sharply
  20. face — to point toward
  21. face — part of the head
  22. cold — not warm
  23. bark — to shout
  24. dip — a sauce

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