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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: tube · row · toast · face · present · hand · tear · craft

  1. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  2. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  3. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  4. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  5. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  6. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  7. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  8. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  9. Actually, the ________________ method has plenty of room for improvement.
  10. I like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  11. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  12. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  13. I'll be taking the ________________.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. My partner was ________________ at the birth of our baby.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. Did you get a birthday ________________ for him this year?
  18. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  19. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  20. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.

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

Answer key

  1. craft — boats
  2. toast — the most admired
  3. face — to point toward
  4. hand — help
  5. craft — a skill
  6. tube — a container
  7. row — a quarrel
  8. face — to confront
  9. present — the time now
  10. toast — bread
  11. craft — a handicraft
  12. tear — from crying
  13. tube — the underground
  14. tear — to rip
  15. present — there
  16. face — part of the head
  17. present — a gift
  18. hand — in cards
  19. toast — a drink to someone
  20. hand — part of the body
  21. tear — from crying
  22. tube — in a tire
  23. row — to paddle
  24. row — a line

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