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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. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  3. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  4. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  5. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  8. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. I'm going to the ________________ to withdraw money.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  16. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  17. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  18. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  19. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. Tiny blossoms have come out all over the river ________________.
  22. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  23. My father caught me by the ________________.
  24. This ________________ always watches out for its own interests.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. face — to point toward
  3. pound — a weight
  4. race — humankind
  5. race — a contest
  6. cold — an illness
  7. pitch — a sports field
  8. pound — to hit hard
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. cold — not warm
  11. pound — for dogs
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. bank — for money
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. race — the arms race
  16. arm — a part of something
  17. pitch — a sales talk
  18. arm — part of the body
  19. face — part of the head
  20. bat — the animal
  21. bank — of a river
  22. pitch — completely
  23. arm — part of the body
  24. bank — for money

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