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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 need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  4. Have you settled on a ________________?
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  9. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  10. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. I'll be taking the ________________.
  13. We're on a ________________ here.
  14. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  15. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  16. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  17. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  18. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  19. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — in a tire
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. roll — a list
  4. date — on the calendar
  5. bat — the animal
  6. date — the fruit
  7. cold — not warm
  8. craft — a handicraft
  9. tear — to rip
  10. tube — a container
  11. cold — an illness
  12. tube — the underground
  13. roll — on a roll
  14. degree — temperature
  15. craft — a skill
  16. craft — boats
  17. tear — from crying
  18. tear — from crying
  19. date — on the calendar
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. degree — an amount
  22. roll — a cake
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. degree — from a university

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