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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 116 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. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  2. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  3. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  4. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  5. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  6. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  7. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  8. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  16. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  17. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  18. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  19. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  20. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  21. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to point toward
  2. bat — in an idiom
  3. pitch — a sales talk
  4. mark — to pay attention
  5. mark — a trace
  6. degree — from a university
  7. degree — an amount
  8. face — to confront
  9. clip — a video
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. clip — for paper
  12. clip — to cut
  13. pitch — a sports field
  14. cold — not warm
  15. stem — to come from
  16. pitch — completely
  17. degree — temperature
  18. mark — a grade
  19. stem — of a plant
  20. cold — an illness
  21. stem — a stem cell
  22. face — part of the head
  23. bat — the animal
  24. cold — the Cold War

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