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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. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  2. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  3. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  4. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  7. The King held a masked ________________.
  8. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  9. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  10. Have you found your soul ________________?
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. I'll be taking the ________________.
  13. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  14. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  17. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  18. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  19. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  22. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  23. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  24. The kitten curled into a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — a container
  2. tube — in a tire
  3. straw — to clutch at straws
  4. bear — the animal
  5. clip — a video
  6. field — a subject
  7. ball — a dance
  8. clip — to cut
  9. wound — an injury
  10. mate — a partner
  11. field — farmland
  12. tube — the underground
  13. mate — to breed
  14. bear — the animal
  15. field — for sport
  16. mate — a friend
  17. wound — an injury
  18. bear — to put up with
  19. clip — for paper
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. straw — dry grass
  22. ball — a great time
  23. wound — past of 'wind'
  24. ball — a round shape

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