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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. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  2. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  3. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  4. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  7. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. Have you settled on a ________________?
  10. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  11. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  12. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  13. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  14. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  15. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  16. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  19. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  20. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  21. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  22. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  23. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  24. I'll be taking the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a rubber band
  2. date — the fruit
  3. bat — the animal
  4. tube — in a tire
  5. march — the month
  6. tube — a container
  7. mine — belonging to me
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. date — on the calendar
  10. mine — for digging
  11. bat — in an idiom
  12. trunk — of a car
  13. clip — a video
  14. clip — for paper
  15. trunk — of a tree
  16. trunk — of an elephant
  17. band — a music group
  18. bat — for baseball
  19. clip — to cut
  20. date — on the calendar
  21. march — music
  22. march — the month
  23. band — a ring
  24. tube — the underground

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