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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. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  10. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  13. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  14. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  15. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  19. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  20. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. hide — to keep secret
  3. wind — moving air
  4. spring — the season
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. present — there
  7. cold — an illness
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. present — a gift
  10. hide — to keep secret
  11. bat — the animal
  12. hide — animal skin
  13. present — the time now
  14. wind — moving air
  15. face — to point toward
  16. face — part of the head
  17. cold — not warm
  18. bore — to drill
  19. bore — to tire
  20. wind — to turn a key
  21. spring — of water
  22. spring — a coil
  23. bore — gave birth
  24. bat — in an idiom

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