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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. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  4. Is it ________________ for us to be here?
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  7. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. He has no idea where the ________________ is.
  13. Tom was very happy that his son returned home ________________ and sound.
  14. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  15. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  23. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  24. She had a strange look on her ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. chest — a box
  3. chest — of your body
  4. safe — out of danger
  5. chest — of your body
  6. branch — a division
  7. clip — a video
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. cold — not warm
  10. file — a tool
  11. cold — an illness
  12. safe — a strongbox
  13. safe — out of danger
  14. file — a line of people
  15. branch — of a tree
  16. file — a document
  17. band — a music group
  18. clip — to cut
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. clip — for paper
  21. band — a ring
  22. face — to point toward
  23. branch — of a bank
  24. face — part of the head

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