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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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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: cabinet · sharp · file · bat · face · chest · fall · row

  1. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. It's one o'clock ________________.
  3. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. What do you think of the new ________________?
  6. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  7. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  10. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  11. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  20. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  21. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  24. I had a ________________ with my boss today.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. sharp — exactly
  3. sharp — clever
  4. chest — of your body
  5. cabinet — ministers
  6. bat — in an idiom
  7. fall — to drop
  8. row — a line
  9. fall — to drop
  10. face — to point toward
  11. file — a line of people
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. row — to paddle
  14. cabinet — ministers
  15. chest — of your body
  16. face — part of the head
  17. file — a document
  18. bat — the animal
  19. fall — the season
  20. cabinet — a cupboard
  21. chest — a box
  22. file — a tool
  23. sharp — with an edge
  24. row — a quarrel

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