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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 120 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. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  4. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  5. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  12. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  13. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  14. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. Have you found your soul ________________?
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  24. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. track — a song
  2. spring — of water
  3. face — to confront
  4. cell — in biology
  5. mate — to breed
  6. shower — rain
  7. cold — an illness
  8. pound — for dogs
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. cell — a phone
  11. mate — a friend
  12. track — a path
  13. track — to keep track
  14. pound — a weight
  15. shower — to wash
  16. spring — a coil
  17. mate — a partner
  18. cold — not warm
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. face — part of the head
  21. face — to point toward
  22. spring — the season
  23. pound — to hit hard
  24. cell — in a prison

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