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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.

Words on the sheet
468
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: spell · club · season · track · cell · face · cold · bat

  1. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  3. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  4. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  5. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  6. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  10. He was locked up in a ________________.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  13. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  14. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  15. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  16. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  20. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  21. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  22. How do you ________________ your surname?
  23. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. club — for golf
  3. season — in sport
  4. face — to confront
  5. face — part of the head
  6. bat — the animal
  7. cold — not warm
  8. spell — a short time
  9. club — a group
  10. cell — in a prison
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. track — to keep track
  13. club — for dancing
  14. face — to point toward
  15. spell — magic
  16. track — a path
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. cell — a phone
  20. season — of the year
  21. track — a song
  22. spell — letters
  23. cell — in biology
  24. cold — an illness

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