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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: bat · face · track · lie · current · march · swing · cold

  1. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  2. David sat on the ________________.
  3. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  6. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  7. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  8. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  9. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  10. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  11. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  14. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  18. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  19. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  24. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. face — to point toward
  2. swing — to play on
  3. track — to keep track
  4. cold — an illness
  5. track — a song
  6. lie — an untruth
  7. march — the month
  8. lie — to recline
  9. current — happening now
  10. current — electric
  11. lie — an untruth
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. swing — in golf
  14. swing — music
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. face — part of the head
  17. march — music
  18. face — to confront
  19. current — of water
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. cold — not warm
  22. bat — the animal
  23. track — a path
  24. march — the month

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