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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. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  5. She's very handy with a ________________.
  6. He works in a ________________ mill.
  7. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  8. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  9. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  12. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  13. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  16. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  19. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. cold — not warm
  4. stem — a stem cell
  5. saw — the tool
  6. saw — the tool
  7. stem — to come from
  8. face — part of the head
  9. drill — a practice
  10. hand — help
  11. drill — the tool
  12. racket — for tennis
  13. face — to point toward
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. saw — past of 'see'
  16. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  17. cold — an illness
  18. kid — to tease
  19. stem — of a plant
  20. kid — child
  21. racket — for tennis
  22. hand — in cards
  23. racket — a loud noise
  24. drill — army training

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