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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. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  2. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. That was a fun ________________.
  5. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  6. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  7. How do you ________________ your surname?
  8. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  13. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  14. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  15. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  16. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  17. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  18. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  19. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  22. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. cap — of ice
  2. face — to confront
  3. game — wild animals
  4. game — a match
  5. shower — rain
  6. vault — an arched ceiling
  7. spell — letters
  8. cap — a hat
  9. bat — the animal
  10. field — a subject
  11. field — farmland
  12. field — for sport
  13. face — part of the head
  14. vault — in gymnastics
  15. game — a kind of play
  16. cap — a lid
  17. face — to point toward
  18. shower — to wash
  19. spell — a short time
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. bat — in an idiom
  22. spell — magic
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. vault — a safe

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