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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. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. He was locked up in a ________________.
  5. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  8. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  9. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  14. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  15. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  16. That must've been a ________________.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  19. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  20. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  21. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  22. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  23. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  24. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. deal — a big deal
  3. cold — not warm
  4. cell — in a prison
  5. chest — of your body
  6. spring — the season
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. rush — hurry
  9. deal — to handle
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. perch — for a bird
  12. chest — a box
  13. deal — an agreement
  14. perch — the fish
  15. cell — a phone
  16. rush — a thrill
  17. cold — an illness
  18. spring — of water
  19. rush — to hurry
  20. cell — in biology
  21. chest — of your body
  22. face — part of the head
  23. face — to point toward
  24. spring — a coil

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