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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.

Words on the sheet
468
Word bank
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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. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  7. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. My father caught me by the ________________.
  10. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  11. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  12. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  16. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  17. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  18. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  19. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  20. Have you found your soul ________________?
  21. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. mate — to breed
  3. cold — not warm
  4. face — part of the head
  5. cold — an illness
  6. file — a line of people
  7. rest — what's left
  8. file — a document
  9. arm — part of the body
  10. rest — what's left
  11. arm — part of the body
  12. rest — a break
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. mine — for digging
  15. capital — a city
  16. arm — a part of something
  17. mine — belonging to me
  18. capital — a big letter
  19. capital — money
  20. mate — a partner
  21. mate — a friend
  22. file — a tool
  23. face — to point toward
  24. mine — an explosive

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