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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: cold · court · rash · squash · mate · face · bat · present

  1. Don't do anything ________________.
  2. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  3. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  6. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  12. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  13. The ball is in your ________________.
  14. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  17. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  18. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  21. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  22. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  23. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  24. Have you found your soul ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. rash — hasty
  2. rash — on the skin
  3. present — the time now
  4. cold — not warm
  5. face — to point toward
  6. squash — the vegetable
  7. cold — an illness
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. face — to confront
  10. bat — the animal
  11. squash — to crush
  12. face — part of the head
  13. court — for sport
  14. present — there
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. present — a gift
  17. squash — the sport
  18. court — of law
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. court — of a king
  21. rash — a series
  22. mate — to breed
  23. mate — a friend
  24. mate — a partner

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