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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 116 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. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  8. False peace will not ________________.
  9. I'll be taking the ________________.
  10. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  11. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  12. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  13. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  16. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  19. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  20. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.
  21. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  22. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. last — final
  2. spring — a coil
  3. tube — a container
  4. bat — the animal
  5. capital — a big letter
  6. capital — money
  7. fork — in a road
  8. last — to go on
  9. tube — the underground
  10. tube — in a tire
  11. bat — for baseball
  12. capital — a city
  13. last — finally
  14. march — the month
  15. spring — of water
  16. shower — a meteor shower
  17. shower — to wash
  18. bat — in an idiom
  19. fork — to eat with
  20. fork — a garden tool
  21. spring — the season
  22. march — music
  23. march — the month
  24. shower — rain

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