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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. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. Where did you ________________ them?
  4. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  5. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  8. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  13. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  18. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  19. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. march — the month
  3. mug — to rob
  4. mug — a face
  5. dip — to dunk
  6. capital — money
  7. march — the month
  8. face — part of the head
  9. game — a match
  10. clip — a video
  11. game — wild animals
  12. mug — a cup
  13. shower — a meteor shower
  14. clip — for paper
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. clip — to cut
  17. face — to point toward
  18. capital — a city
  19. dip — to sink
  20. shower — rain
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. dip — a sauce
  23. shower — to wash
  24. march — music

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