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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. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  4. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  5. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  6. How do you ________________ your surname?
  7. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  8. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  11. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  12. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. He is an ace ________________.
  17. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  18. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  19. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  20. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  21. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  22. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  23. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. spell — magic
  2. cold — not warm
  3. stem — a stem cell
  4. face — part of the head
  5. pitcher — a jug
  6. spell — letters
  7. face — to point toward
  8. pitcher — a jug
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. face — to confront
  11. stem — to come from
  12. tear — from crying
  13. cold — an illness
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. pitcher — in baseball
  17. spell — a short time
  18. tear — to rip
  19. drill — army training
  20. drill — the tool
  21. drill — a practice
  22. stem — of a plant
  23. tear — from crying
  24. cold — the Cold War

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