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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. False peace will not ________________.
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  11. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  12. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  13. I'll be taking the ________________.
  14. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  15. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  16. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  17. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  20. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.

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

Answer key

  1. last — to go on
  2. last — final
  3. tube — in a tire
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. straw — dry grass
  7. bat — the animal
  8. mine — for digging
  9. kid — to tease
  10. tube — a container
  11. mine — an explosive
  12. mine — belonging to me
  13. tube — the underground
  14. kid — child
  15. face — to point toward
  16. face — part of the head
  17. straw — a straw man
  18. shower — rain
  19. face — to confront
  20. last — finally
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. shower — to wash
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. bat — in an idiom

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