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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. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  3. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  4. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  7. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  8. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  9. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  10. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  11. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  12. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  13. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  16. David sat on the ________________.
  17. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  18. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  19. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  20. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  21. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  22. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  23. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  24. The polar ice ________________ is melting.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. prune — to trim
  3. dip — to dunk
  4. bark — a dog's sound
  5. land — to come down
  6. bark — to shout
  7. prune — to trim
  8. face — to point toward
  9. land — ground
  10. dip — a sauce
  11. land — a country
  12. cap — a hat
  13. face — part of the head
  14. capital — a city
  15. capital — money
  16. swing — to play on
  17. cap — a lid
  18. swing — music
  19. bark — of a tree
  20. swing — in golf
  21. prune — the fruit
  22. dip — to sink
  23. capital — a big letter
  24. cap — of ice

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