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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 120 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: face · kid · bark · bat · fan · firm · land · spell

  1. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  2. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  3. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  4. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  5. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  6. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  12. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  18. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  19. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  22. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  23. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  24. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — to cool the air
  2. fan — a supporter
  3. kid — to tease
  4. bark — a dog's sound
  5. firm — a company
  6. fan — a supporter
  7. bat — the animal
  8. face — to point toward
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. spell — letters
  11. face — part of the head
  12. bark — to shout
  13. land — to come down
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. bark — of a tree
  16. kid — child
  17. spell — magic
  18. spell — a short time
  19. firm — decided
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. firm — steady
  22. land — a country
  23. land — ground
  24. face — to confront

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