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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. I can't ________________ this cold.
  3. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  4. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  5. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  6. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  7. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  8. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  13. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  14. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  15. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  16. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  17. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. stand — to bear
  3. stick — a piece of wood
  4. stand — for spectators
  5. tear — from crying
  6. bark — a dog's sound
  7. fall — to drop
  8. face — part of the head
  9. fall — to drop
  10. shower — to wash
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. shower — rain
  13. stand — on your feet
  14. stick — a piece of wood
  15. bark — of a tree
  16. stick — to attach or keep to
  17. bark — to shout
  18. cold — an illness
  19. cold — not warm
  20. tear — from crying
  21. face — to point toward
  22. fall — the season
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. tear — to rip

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