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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 ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  2. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  7. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  8. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  9. We're almost out of ________________.
  10. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  11. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  12. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  13. You don't need to ________________ round.
  14. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  15. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  16. The water is too ________________.
  17. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  18. He is an ace ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  22. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. face — to point toward
  3. land — a country
  4. land — ground
  5. land — to come down
  6. squash — the sport
  7. face — to confront
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. pop — soda
  10. squash — to crush
  11. shower — to wash
  12. pop — music
  13. pop — to visit
  14. tear — from crying
  15. face — part of the head
  16. cold — not warm
  17. squash — the vegetable
  18. pitcher — in baseball
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. cold — an illness
  21. tear — to rip
  22. tear — from crying
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. shower — rain

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