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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. Tom opened a ________________ of soup.
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  7. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  8. ________________ you help me carry this box?
  9. It's one o'clock ________________.
  10. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. Recycle the empty soda ________________.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  15. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  16. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  20. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  24. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. can — a tin
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. face — part of the head
  7. chest — of your body
  8. can — to be able to
  9. sharp — exactly
  10. sharp — with an edge
  11. shower — rain
  12. can — a tin
  13. mine — for digging
  14. face — to point toward
  15. mine — an explosive
  16. stem — of a plant
  17. bat — the animal
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. face — to confront
  20. sharp — clever
  21. chest — of your body
  22. chest — a box
  23. stem — to come from
  24. stem — a stem cell

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