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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. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  2. I'll be taking the ________________.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  5. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  6. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  7. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  8. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  9. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  10. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  11. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  12. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  13. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. When are we going to ________________?
  16. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  17. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  18. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  19. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  20. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  21. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  22. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  23. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  24. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.

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

Answer key

  1. wake — before a funeral
  2. tube — the underground
  3. land — ground
  4. pound — to hit hard
  5. tube — in a tire
  6. race — humankind
  7. pound — for dogs
  8. wake — to stop sleeping
  9. branch — of a tree
  10. row — a quarrel
  11. spring — the season
  12. branch — of a bank
  13. pound — a weight
  14. land — a country
  15. land — to come down
  16. race — a contest
  17. race — the arms race
  18. wake — a trail
  19. spring — of water
  20. tube — a container
  21. branch — a division
  22. spring — a coil
  23. row — to paddle
  24. row — a line

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