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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 ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  2. Don't do anything ________________.
  3. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  4. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  5. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  8. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. I'll be taking the ________________.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  14. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  15. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  16. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  17. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  24. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — the animal
  2. rash — hasty
  3. foot — the bottom
  4. foot — a measure
  5. rash — on the skin
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. rash — a series
  8. march — the month
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. file — a tool
  11. tube — the underground
  12. file — a line of people
  13. march — the month
  14. mine — for digging
  15. march — music
  16. content — happy
  17. tube — in a tire
  18. content — the amount
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. foot — part of the body
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. file — a document
  24. tube — a container

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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