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

Word bank: bore · cold · pass · race · bat · snap · face · last

  1. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  3. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  4. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  5. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  6. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  11. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  12. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  13. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  14. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  15. False peace will not ________________.
  16. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  17. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  18. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  19. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  20. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  21. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  22. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. The water is too ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. snap — to snap out of it
  3. bore — gave birth
  4. face — part of the head
  5. bore — to tire
  6. race — a contest
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. bat — the animal
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. bore — to drill
  11. pass — to succeed
  12. race — humankind
  13. cold — an illness
  14. pass — to spend time
  15. last — to go on
  16. pass — a permit
  17. snap — to speak sharply
  18. face — to point toward
  19. race — the arms race
  20. snap — to click
  21. last — finally
  22. last — final
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. cold — not warm

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