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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: bat · drill · snap · rest · face · cell · game · chair

  1. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  2. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  3. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  4. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  7. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  8. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  9. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  10. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  11. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  15. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  16. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. He was locked up in a ________________.
  20. That was a fun ________________.
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  23. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  24. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.

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

Answer key

  1. drill — the tool
  2. rest — a break
  3. drill — army training
  4. chair — a professorship
  5. bat — the animal
  6. face — part of the head
  7. snap — to click
  8. face — to confront
  9. drill — a practice
  10. chair — to sit on
  11. rest — what's left
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. chair — a leader
  15. snap — to snap out of it
  16. rest — what's left
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. cell — in biology
  19. cell — in a prison
  20. game — a match
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. cell — a phone
  23. game — wild animals
  24. face — to point toward

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