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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. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  3. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  6. The King held a masked ________________.
  7. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  8. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  9. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  10. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  11. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  12. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  13. The ________________ took off on time.
  14. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  15. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. ball — a great time
  3. cell — a phone
  4. cold — an illness
  5. fork — a garden tool
  6. ball — a dance
  7. plane — in geometry
  8. fork — to eat with
  9. ball — a round shape
  10. cell — in biology
  11. face — to point toward
  12. race — a contest
  13. plane — an aircraft
  14. march — music
  15. plane — a tool
  16. face — part of the head
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. race — the arms race
  19. march — the month
  20. race — humankind
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. march — the month
  23. fork — in a road
  24. cold — not warm

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