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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 trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  2. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  3. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. When was this ________________ built?
  8. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  9. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  12. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  23. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. temple — side of the head
  2. straw — to clutch at straws
  3. present — a gift
  4. hand — in cards
  5. face — to point toward
  6. hand — help
  7. temple — a place of worship
  8. temple — a place of worship
  9. face — to confront
  10. chest — of your body
  11. chair — a professorship
  12. chair — a leader
  13. cold — an illness
  14. present — the time now
  15. chest — of your body
  16. face — part of the head
  17. cold — not warm
  18. present — there
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. chest — a box
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. chair — to sit on
  23. straw — dry grass
  24. hand — part of the body

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