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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. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  3. The tickets are free of ________________.
  4. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Positive actions can inspire others to follow ________________.
  7. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. When will it ________________ you to start?
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. The cuffs of his ________________ jacket are badly frayed.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  14. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  15. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  16. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  17. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  18. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  21. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  22. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. mine — for digging
  3. charge — a price
  4. lean — thin
  5. cold — an illness
  6. suit — in cards
  7. lean — to bend
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. suit — to fit
  10. bat — the animal
  11. suit — clothes
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. clip — for paper
  14. charge — electricity
  15. face — part of the head
  16. mine — an explosive
  17. lean — to rest against
  18. mine — belonging to me
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. charge — in control
  21. clip — to cut
  22. face — to point toward
  23. cold — not warm
  24. clip — a video

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