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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 had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  5. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. The ________________ market has crashed.
  8. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  11. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  12. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  13. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  14. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  15. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  16. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  17. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  18. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  19. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  20. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  21. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  24. What's the difference between broth and ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. wound — an injury
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. lie — an untruth
  5. shower — rain
  6. cold — not warm
  7. stock — shares
  8. cold — an illness
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. face — to confront
  11. wound — past of 'wind'
  12. shower — to wash
  13. scale — size or range
  14. stock — goods
  15. wound — an injury
  16. scale — in music
  17. face — part of the head
  18. lie — to recline
  19. lie — an untruth
  20. face — to point toward
  21. row — a line
  22. row — to paddle
  23. scale — for weighing
  24. stock — a soup base

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