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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 116 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. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  2. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  3. Have you met the new head ________________?
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  6. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  7. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  10. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  11. How do you ________________ your surname?
  12. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  13. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  16. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  19. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  22. This piece is in a major ________________.
  23. That was a fun ________________.
  24. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.

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

Answer key

  1. key — for a lock
  2. clip — for paper
  3. coach — a trainer
  4. game — wild animals
  5. stick — a piece of wood
  6. key — the most important part
  7. face — to confront
  8. cold — an illness
  9. spell — a short time
  10. stick — a piece of wood
  11. spell — letters
  12. face — part of the head
  13. coach — a trainer
  14. cold — not warm
  15. stick — to attach or keep to
  16. coach — pulled by horses
  17. clip — to cut
  18. clip — a video
  19. spell — magic
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. cold — the Cold War
  22. key — in music
  23. game — a match
  24. face — to point toward

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