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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. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  2. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. That was a fun ________________.
  6. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  7. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  8. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  13. She's very handy with a ________________.
  14. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  17. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  18. I'll be taking the ________________.
  19. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  20. He works in a ________________ mill.
  21. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  22. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. He keeps ________________ of his days.

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

Answer key

  1. track — a path
  2. march — the month
  3. tube — in a tire
  4. cold — not warm
  5. game — a match
  6. saw — past of 'see'
  7. game — wild animals
  8. tube — a container
  9. march — music
  10. chip — in a computer
  11. march — the month
  12. dip — a sauce
  13. saw — the tool
  14. game — a kind of play
  15. cold — an illness
  16. chip — to eat
  17. dip — to dunk
  18. tube — the underground
  19. track — a song
  20. saw — the tool
  21. dip — to sink
  22. chip — for betting
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. track — to keep track

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