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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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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. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  2. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  3. The light ________________ burned out.
  4. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. I'll be taking the ________________.
  7. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  10. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  11. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  12. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  13. I've got to change the light ________________.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  20. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  21. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to click
  2. straw — a straw man
  3. bulb — for light
  4. snap — to speak sharply
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. tube — the underground
  7. tube — in a tire
  8. content — the amount
  9. tube — a container
  10. bulb — of a plant
  11. band — a music group
  12. snap — to snap out of it
  13. bulb — for light
  14. bat — the animal
  15. band — a rubber band
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. capital — money
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. straw — dry grass
  20. content — happy
  21. band — a ring
  22. capital — a city
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. bat — in an idiom

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