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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. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  3. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  4. The farmer was ________________ with the unruly horse.
  5. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  6. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  7. The nurse administered an injection to the ________________.
  8. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  9. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  10. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  21. The ________________ was transferred to the cardiology ward.
  22. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. She had a strange look on her ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. chest — a box
  3. scale — size or range
  4. patient — calm and waiting
  5. wound — past of 'wind'
  6. chair — to sit on
  7. patient — a sick person
  8. capital — money
  9. face — to point toward
  10. chair — a leader
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. wound — an injury
  13. file — a tool
  14. capital — a city
  15. chest — of your body
  16. scale — for weighing
  17. file — a line of people
  18. wound — an injury
  19. file — a document
  20. chair — a professorship
  21. patient — a sick person
  22. scale — in music
  23. chest — of your body
  24. face — part of the head

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