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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. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  2. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  3. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  4. He is an ace ________________.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  7. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  10. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  11. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  12. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  23. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  24. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.

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

Answer key

  1. lean — to bend
  2. face — part of the head
  3. wax — for sculpting
  4. pitcher — in baseball
  5. spring — a coil
  6. face — to point toward
  7. clip — for paper
  8. spring — the season
  9. chest — a box
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. wax — to grow
  12. cell — a phone
  13. spring — of water
  14. wax — in the ear
  15. chest — of your body
  16. lean — thin
  17. chest — of your body
  18. face — to confront
  19. clip — to cut
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. clip — a video
  23. lean — to rest against
  24. cell — in biology

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