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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 116 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. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  8. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  9. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  10. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  11. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  12. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  13. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  14. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  15. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  16. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  17. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  18. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  23. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  24. He is as ________________ as a wolf.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. hand — help
  3. face — to point toward
  4. wind — moving air
  5. club — for golf
  6. degree — temperature
  7. lean — to bend
  8. club — for dancing
  9. straw — to clutch at straws
  10. pit — a hole
  11. pit — in a race
  12. hand — in cards
  13. face — part of the head
  14. pit — a fruit stone
  15. hand — part of the body
  16. straw — a straw man
  17. wind — to turn a key
  18. lean — to rest against
  19. wind — moving air
  20. degree — from a university
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. degree — an amount
  23. club — a group
  24. lean — thin

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