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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. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  6. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  9. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  10. How do you ________________ your surname?
  11. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  12. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  13. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  14. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  15. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  16. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  17. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  18. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  21. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  22. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  23. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  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 — the month
  3. march — music
  4. bat — the animal
  5. deal — a big deal
  6. mark — a trace
  7. tear — from crying
  8. bat — for baseball
  9. squash — to crush
  10. spell — letters
  11. mark — to pay attention
  12. spell — magic
  13. deal — an agreement
  14. tube — a container
  15. tear — to rip
  16. tear — from crying
  17. squash — the sport
  18. mark — a grade
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. deal — to handle
  21. tube — in a tire
  22. squash — the vegetable
  23. spell — a short time
  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