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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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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: game · face · band · cold · leaves · bound · bark · sharp

  1. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  4. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  5. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  6. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  7. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  8. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  9. That was a fun ________________.
  10. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  11. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  12. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  13. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. It's one o'clock ________________.
  16. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  17. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  20. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  21. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  22. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. That was ________________ to happen.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to confront
  2. band — a ring
  3. game — wild animals
  4. band — a rubber band
  5. leaves — to go away
  6. bark — a dog's sound
  7. leaves — lets stay
  8. sharp — clever
  9. game — a match
  10. bark — to shout
  11. leaves — of a tree
  12. face — part of the head
  13. band — a music group
  14. cold — an illness
  15. sharp — exactly
  16. face — to point toward
  17. sharp — with an edge
  18. cold — not warm
  19. bound — obliged
  20. game — a kind of play
  21. bound — tied together
  22. bark — of a tree
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. bound — certain

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