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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 116 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: scale · row · cap · stem · face · shower · bat · tear

  1. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  2. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  3. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  4. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  9. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  10. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  11. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  12. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  16. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  17. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  18. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  19. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  20. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  21. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  22. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  23. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. face — part of the head
  2. stem — to come from
  3. face — to point toward
  4. scale — in music
  5. bat — the animal
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. shower — rain
  8. stem — a stem cell
  9. face — to confront
  10. cap — of ice
  11. cap — a lid
  12. tear — to rip
  13. tear — from crying
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. row — to paddle
  16. tear — from crying
  17. bat — for baseball
  18. shower — a meteor shower
  19. cap — a hat
  20. shower — to wash
  21. stem — of a plant
  22. scale — for weighing
  23. row — a line
  24. scale — size or range

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