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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. The water is too ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  6. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  7. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  11. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  12. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  13. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  17. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  19. My father caught me by the ________________.
  20. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  23. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  24. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. lie — to recline
  4. land — to come down
  5. wind — moving air
  6. squash — the sport
  7. face — to confront
  8. cold — an illness
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. arm — a part of something
  11. lie — an untruth
  12. lie — an untruth
  13. land — ground
  14. wind — moving air
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. squash — to crush
  17. face — to point toward
  18. squash — the vegetable
  19. arm — part of the body
  20. face — part of the head
  21. bat — the animal
  22. arm — part of the body
  23. land — a country
  24. wind — to turn a key

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