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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. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  2. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  5. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  6. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  7. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  8. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  11. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  12. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  13. How do you ________________ your surname?
  14. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  17. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  18. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  19. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — in an idiom
  2. spell — a short time
  3. cold — an illness
  4. face — to confront
  5. net — after costs
  6. fan — to cool the air
  7. spring — a coil
  8. net — for catching
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. clip — to cut
  11. clip — a video
  12. fan — a supporter
  13. spell — letters
  14. face — to point toward
  15. spring — the season
  16. clip — for paper
  17. fan — a supporter
  18. face — part of the head
  19. spell — magic
  20. spring — of water
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. bat — the animal
  23. net — in sport
  24. cold — not warm

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