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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. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  2. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  3. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  4. Why are you trying to ________________ your feelings?
  5. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  6. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  9. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  12. We have nothing to ________________ here.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. She was laid on a cow-________________ and covered by a coarse woollen blanket.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  22. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.

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

Answer key

  1. bowl — a dish
  2. face — part of the head
  3. stick — a piece of wood
  4. hide — to keep secret
  5. stick — to attach or keep to
  6. snap — to click
  7. file — a tool
  8. face — to point toward
  9. face — to confront
  10. shower — rain
  11. bowl — to roll
  12. hide — to keep secret
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. cold — not warm
  15. hide — animal skin
  16. file — a line of people
  17. file — a document
  18. stick — a piece of wood
  19. cold — an illness
  20. shower — to wash
  21. snap — to snap out of it
  22. snap — to speak sharply
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. bowl — a football final

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