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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. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  4. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  5. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  6. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  7. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  8. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  9. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  10. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  11. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  14. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  15. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  18. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  21. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  22. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  23. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. bear — the animal
  2. chest — of your body
  3. lie — to recline
  4. shower — to wash
  5. stem — a stem cell
  6. stem — to come from
  7. shower — a meteor shower
  8. face — part of the head
  9. bear — to put up with
  10. face — to point toward
  11. face — to confront
  12. chest — a box
  13. cap — a hat
  14. cap — a lid
  15. shower — rain
  16. clip — to cut
  17. bear — the animal
  18. lie — an untruth
  19. clip — for paper
  20. lie — an untruth
  21. stem — of a plant
  22. cap — of ice
  23. chest — of your body
  24. clip — a video

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