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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. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  2. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  3. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  4. Our cat is sitting in the apple tree, and the birds are making a ________________.
  5. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  6. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  7. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  8. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  9. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. He was locked up in a ________________.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  14. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  15. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  16. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  17. He hit the ball with his ________________.
  18. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  19. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  23. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  24. I haven't touched a tennis ________________ in years.

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

Answer key

  1. toast — bread
  2. face — to confront
  3. wound — past of 'wind'
  4. racket — a loud noise
  5. snap — to click
  6. wound — an injury
  7. snap — to speak sharply
  8. cell — in biology
  9. degree — temperature
  10. cell — a phone
  11. cell — in a prison
  12. spring — the season
  13. wound — an injury
  14. snap — to snap out of it
  15. toast — the most admired
  16. spring — of water
  17. racket — for tennis
  18. face — part of the head
  19. degree — an amount
  20. spring — a coil
  21. face — to point toward
  22. toast — a drink to someone
  23. degree — from a university
  24. racket — for tennis

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