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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 120 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. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  2. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  3. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  4. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  7. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. I'll be taking the ________________.
  11. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  14. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  15. That was ________________ to happen.
  16. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  17. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  21. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  22. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  23. The water is too ________________.
  24. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a music group
  2. tube — a container
  3. bound — obliged
  4. fork — in a road
  5. content — happy
  6. bound — tied together
  7. content — videos and posts
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. row — a line
  10. tube — the underground
  11. fork — a garden tool
  12. row — to paddle
  13. band — a rubber band
  14. race — the arms race
  15. bound — certain
  16. tube — in a tire
  17. race — humankind
  18. content — the amount
  19. cold — an illness
  20. band — a ring
  21. race — a contest
  22. fork — to eat with
  23. cold — not warm
  24. cold — the Cold War

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