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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. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  2. It's one o'clock ________________.
  3. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  4. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  5. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  6. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  7. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  13. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  18. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  19. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  20. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  21. I'll be taking the ________________.
  22. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  23. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  24. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — with an edge
  2. sharp — exactly
  3. pit — a hole
  4. capital — a city
  5. march — music
  6. tube — in a tire
  7. march — the month
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. cold — an illness
  10. tube — a container
  11. march — the month
  12. fork — in a road
  13. fork — to eat with
  14. cold — not warm
  15. game — a match
  16. capital — money
  17. fork — a garden tool
  18. game — a kind of play
  19. game — wild animals
  20. pit — a fruit stone
  21. tube — the underground
  22. capital — a big letter
  23. sharp — clever
  24. pit — in a race

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