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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: face · ground · pass · club · ball · tear · cold · tube

  1. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  2. I'll be taking the ________________.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  5. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  8. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  13. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  16. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  17. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  18. The King held a masked ________________.
  19. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  20. There's no middle ________________.
  21. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  22. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  23. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  24. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.

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

Answer key

  1. club — for golf
  2. tube — the underground
  3. cold — an illness
  4. ball — a great time
  5. pass — to succeed
  6. tear — from crying
  7. tube — in a tire
  8. ground — crushed
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. face — to confront
  11. cold — not warm
  12. pass — to spend time
  13. club — a group
  14. tear — to rip
  15. pass — a permit
  16. ground — the earth
  17. ball — a round shape
  18. ball — a dance
  19. club — for dancing
  20. ground — a position
  21. tube — a container
  22. tear — from crying
  23. face — part of the head
  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