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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. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  2. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  5. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  6. I can't ________________ this cold.
  7. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  8. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  9. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  10. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. That was a fun ________________.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. David sat on the ________________.
  24. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.

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

Answer key

  1. face — part of the head
  2. stand — for spectators
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. face — to point toward
  5. bat — for baseball
  6. stand — to bear
  7. stand — on your feet
  8. swing — music
  9. mine — for digging
  10. game — wild animals
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. face — to confront
  14. bat — the animal
  15. clip — a video
  16. clip — to cut
  17. game — a match
  18. chest — of your body
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. clip — for paper
  21. chest — of your body
  22. chest — a box
  23. swing — to play on
  24. swing — in golf

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