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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. I'll be taking the ________________.
  2. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  3. When was this ________________ built?
  4. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  9. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  10. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  11. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  12. The water is too ________________.
  13. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  14. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The ________________ market has crashed.
  17. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  18. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  19. It's one o'clock ________________.
  20. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  21. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  22. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  23. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  24. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — the underground
  2. march — music
  3. temple — a place of worship
  4. stock — a soup base
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. chest — a box
  7. cold — an illness
  8. temple — side of the head
  9. temple — a place of worship
  10. sharp — with an edge
  11. mine — belonging to me
  12. cold — not warm
  13. sharp — clever
  14. tube — a container
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. stock — shares
  17. mine — for digging
  18. chest — of your body
  19. sharp — exactly
  20. stock — goods
  21. chest — of your body
  22. tube — in a tire
  23. march — the month
  24. march — the month

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