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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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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  2. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  5. This is the first time I've ever walked with a ________________.
  6. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  7. False peace will not ________________.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. Speak softly and carry a big ________________.
  10. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  13. I'll be taking the ________________.
  14. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. Fiction is obliged to ________________ to possibilities. Truth isn't.
  17. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  18. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!

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

Answer key

  1. tube — in a tire
  2. spring — of water
  3. bat — the animal
  4. bat — in an idiom
  5. stick — a piece of wood
  6. cold — the Cold War
  7. last — to go on
  8. cold — not warm
  9. stick — a piece of wood
  10. tube — a container
  11. cold — an illness
  12. spring — the season
  13. tube — the underground
  14. spring — a coil
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. stick — to attach or keep to
  17. last — finally
  18. last — final

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