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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. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  10. That must've been a ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  16. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  17. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  20. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. She's sitting on a gold ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. rush — hurry
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. spring — the season
  5. present — there
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. face — to point toward
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. track — a song
  10. rush — a thrill
  11. cold — an illness
  12. rush — to hurry
  13. cold — not warm
  14. spring — a coil
  15. present — a gift
  16. track — to keep track
  17. track — a path
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. present — the time now
  20. face — part of the head
  21. spring — of water
  22. row — to paddle
  23. row — a line
  24. mine — for digging

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