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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 ________________ to install the towel rack.
  3. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  6. Don't do anything ________________.
  7. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  8. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  9. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. I'll be taking the ________________.
  12. That was a fun ________________.
  13. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  14. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  15. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  16. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  17. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  18. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  19. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  20. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  21. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — a container
  2. drill — the tool
  3. bat — for baseball
  4. game — wild animals
  5. rash — on the skin
  6. rash — hasty
  7. chair — to sit on
  8. drill — a practice
  9. tube — in a tire
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. tube — the underground
  12. game — a match
  13. bat — in an idiom
  14. bat — the animal
  15. shower — to wash
  16. drill — army training
  17. degree — an amount
  18. chair — a professorship
  19. degree — from a university
  20. degree — temperature
  21. chair — a leader
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. rash — a series
  24. shower — rain

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