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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. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. Which do you like better, ________________ music or classical music?
  4. I don't want to ________________ the boat.
  5. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  6. We were using a ________________ as a seat.
  7. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  8. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  9. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  10. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  13. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  14. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  15. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  16. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  17. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. The water is too ________________.
  21. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. The ________________ took off on time.

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

Answer key

  1. face — part of the head
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. rock — music
  4. rock — to move gently
  5. snap — to click
  6. rock — a stone
  7. trunk — of an elephant
  8. plane — a tool
  9. straw — dry grass
  10. wound — an injury
  11. wound — an injury
  12. trunk — of a tree
  13. snap — to snap out of it
  14. plane — in geometry
  15. trunk — of a car
  16. face — to confront
  17. wound — past of 'wind'
  18. cold — an illness
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. cold — not warm
  21. face — to point toward
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. plane — an aircraft

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