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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. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  2. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  3. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  4. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  5. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  6. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  10. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  11. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  22. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. face — part of the head
  2. content — happy
  3. face — to point toward
  4. straw — a straw man
  5. leaves — of a tree
  6. leaves — lets stay
  7. game — a match
  8. row — a line
  9. fork — in a road
  10. content — the amount
  11. fork — to eat with
  12. chest — of your body
  13. face — to confront
  14. row — to paddle
  15. leaves — to go away
  16. chest — a box
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. fork — a garden tool
  19. chest — of your body
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. game — wild animals
  22. row — a quarrel
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. straw — dry grass

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