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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. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  5. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  13. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  14. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  23. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. pit — a hole
  2. hand — help
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. face — part of the head
  5. shower — rain
  6. shower — to wash
  7. face — to confront
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. pit — a fruit stone
  11. land — ground
  12. bat — the animal
  13. cap — a lid
  14. cap — of ice
  15. land — to come down
  16. hand — in cards
  17. cold — an illness
  18. pit — in a race
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. cold — not warm
  21. face — to point toward
  22. cap — a hat
  23. bat — in an idiom
  24. land — a country

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