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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. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  2. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  3. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  4. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  5. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  6. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  7. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  12. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  13. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  17. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  20. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  21. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  24. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.

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

Answer key

  1. spring — a coil
  2. cell — in biology
  3. perch — the fish
  4. face — to confront
  5. fall — to drop
  6. fall — the season
  7. snap — to click
  8. cold — not warm
  9. face — to point toward
  10. spring — the season
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. root — of a word
  13. perch — for a bird
  14. spring — of water
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. cell — a phone
  17. snap — to speak sharply
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. fall — to drop
  20. root — the cause
  21. face — part of the head
  22. cold — an illness
  23. snap — to snap out of it
  24. root — of a plant

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