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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. Tom got himself in a ________________.
  2. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  4. The bus was late because of the traffic ________________.
  5. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. Would you like some apricot ________________?
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  10. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  11. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  12. It's one o'clock ________________.
  13. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.

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

Answer key

  1. jam — a tight spot
  2. sharp — clever
  3. face — to confront
  4. jam — in traffic
  5. rock — a stone
  6. bat — the animal
  7. jam — to spread on bread
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. rock — music
  10. sharp — with an edge
  11. fork — a garden tool
  12. sharp — exactly
  13. face — part of the head
  14. cold — an illness
  15. capital — a city
  16. rock — to move gently
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. fork — to eat with
  20. cold — not warm
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. fork — in a road
  23. capital — money
  24. face — to point toward

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