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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. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  3. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  4. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  5. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  6. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  7. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  8. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  9. The water is too ________________.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. He works in a ________________ mill.
  14. She's very handy with a ________________.
  15. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  16. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  17. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  22. Did you ________________ the button?
  23. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  24. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. face — to point toward
  3. shower — a meteor shower
  4. fall — the season
  5. face — to confront
  6. fall — to drop
  7. vault — a safe
  8. saw — past of 'see'
  9. cold — not warm
  10. clip — for paper
  11. press — a publisher
  12. clip — to cut
  13. saw — the tool
  14. saw — the tool
  15. press — newspapers
  16. vault — an arched ceiling
  17. face — part of the head
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. cold — an illness
  20. clip — a video
  21. shower — rain
  22. press — to push
  23. vault — in gymnastics
  24. fall — to drop

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