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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. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  6. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  7. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  13. I'll be taking the ________________.
  14. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  15. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  16. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  17. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  18. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  23. How do you ________________ your surname?
  24. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — the fish
  2. march — the month
  3. bass — the instrument
  4. march — music
  5. degree — an amount
  6. degree — temperature
  7. tube — a container
  8. content — happy
  9. file — a tool
  10. straw — dry grass
  11. march — the month
  12. content — the amount
  13. tube — the underground
  14. content — videos and posts
  15. tube — in a tire
  16. straw — to clutch at straws
  17. bass — low music
  18. straw — a straw man
  19. file — a document
  20. spell — magic
  21. file — a line of people
  22. degree — from a university
  23. spell — letters
  24. spell — a short time

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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