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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  3. The ________________ took off on time.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  6. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  11. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  12. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  13. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  14. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  17. The King held a masked ________________.
  18. There's no middle ________________.
  19. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  20. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  21. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. ground — crushed
  3. plane — an aircraft
  4. game — wild animals
  5. ball — a great time
  6. ball — a round shape
  7. cold — an illness
  8. cold — not warm
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. fan — a supporter
  11. kid — child
  12. face — to confront
  13. ground — the earth
  14. fan — a supporter
  15. game — a match
  16. game — a kind of play
  17. ball — a dance
  18. ground — a position
  19. face — to point toward
  20. fan — to cool the air
  21. plane — in geometry
  22. face — part of the head
  23. plane — a tool
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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