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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. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  2. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  3. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  7. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  8. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  9. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  10. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  11. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  12. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  13. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  16. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  17. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  18. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  19. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  20. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  21. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  22. How do you ________________ your surname?
  23. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  24. I'll be taking the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — in a tire
  2. bear — the animal
  3. spell — a short time
  4. land — to come down
  5. shower — to wash
  6. land — ground
  7. file — a document
  8. shower — a meteor shower
  9. degree — an amount
  10. spell — magic
  11. tube — a container
  12. file — a tool
  13. bear — the animal
  14. shower — rain
  15. file — a line of people
  16. lean — to bend
  17. lean — thin
  18. degree — from a university
  19. land — a country
  20. lean — to rest against
  21. degree — temperature
  22. spell — letters
  23. bear — to put up with
  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