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

  1. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  2. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  5. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  6. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  7. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  8. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  11. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  12. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  13. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  14. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  15. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  20. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  21. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  24. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. capital — a city
  3. cold — an illness
  4. dip — to dunk
  5. stem — a stem cell
  6. file — a document
  7. bear — the animal
  8. fan — to cool the air
  9. file — a tool
  10. dip — to sink
  11. stem — to come from
  12. capital — a big letter
  13. fan — a supporter
  14. bear — to put up with
  15. tube — in a tire
  16. file — a line of people
  17. cold — not warm
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. stem — of a plant
  20. bear — the animal
  21. dip — a sauce
  22. tube — the underground
  23. capital — money
  24. tube — a container

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