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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 little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  2. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  4. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  5. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  6. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  7. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  10. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  11. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  12. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  15. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  16. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  17. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  18. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  21. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  22. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  23. I'll be taking the ________________.
  24. Check the label for the sugar ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bear — the animal
  2. spring — the season
  3. tube — in a tire
  4. bear — the animal
  5. spring — a coil
  6. file — a document
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. content — happy
  9. file — a line of people
  10. cold — the Cold War
  11. perch — the fish
  12. bear — to put up with
  13. file — a tool
  14. cold — an illness
  15. lie — to recline
  16. lie — an untruth
  17. spring — of water
  18. tube — a container
  19. cold — not warm
  20. lie — an untruth
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. content — videos and posts
  23. tube — the underground
  24. content — the amount

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