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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. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  2. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  3. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  4. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  5. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  13. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  14. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  15. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  23. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. face — part of the head
  2. lash — an eyelash
  3. hand — help
  4. bass — the instrument
  5. face — to confront
  6. snap — to click
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. hand — part of the body
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. bass — the fish
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. lash — a whip stroke
  13. bass — low music
  14. lash — to lash out
  15. face — to point toward
  16. bat — the animal
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. capital — a city
  20. hand — in cards
  21. kid — to tease
  22. kid — child
  23. snap — to snap out of it
  24. capital — money

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