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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. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  2. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  3. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. I'll be taking the ________________.
  6. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  9. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  10. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  11. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  12. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  15. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  22. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  23. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  24. That was a fun ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. face — part of the head
  2. bark — to shout
  3. hand — in cards
  4. kid — to tease
  5. tube — the underground
  6. game — a kind of play
  7. bat — the animal
  8. face — to point toward
  9. bark — a dog's sound
  10. bat — for baseball
  11. game — wild animals
  12. tube — in a tire
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. tube — a container
  15. prune — to trim
  16. hand — help
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. prune — to trim
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. kid — child
  21. face — to confront
  22. bark — of a tree
  23. prune — the fruit
  24. game — a match

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