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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 sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  2. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  3. My father caught me by the ________________.
  4. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  5. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  12. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  13. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  14. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  19. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  20. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  21. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  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. arm — a part of something
  2. shower — a meteor shower
  3. arm — part of the body
  4. vault — a safe
  5. track — to keep track
  6. shower — to wash
  7. degree — from a university
  8. cold — not warm
  9. kid — to tease
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. face — to confront
  12. arm — part of the body
  13. vault — an arched ceiling
  14. face — to point toward
  15. kid — child
  16. shower — rain
  17. cold — an illness
  18. track — a song
  19. degree — temperature
  20. track — a path
  21. vault — in gymnastics
  22. degree — an amount
  23. face — part of the head
  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