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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. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  2. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  3. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. I'll be taking the ________________.
  7. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  8. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  9. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  10. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  11. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  12. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  13. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  14. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  15. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  16. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  20. The ________________ market has crashed.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  23. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  24. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.

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

Answer key

  1. bat — for baseball
  2. band — a rubber band
  3. trunk — of a car
  4. cold — an illness
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. tube — the underground
  7. mine — for digging
  8. lash — a whip stroke
  9. stock — a soup base
  10. mine — an explosive
  11. lash — an eyelash
  12. tube — a container
  13. trunk — of an elephant
  14. tube — in a tire
  15. mine — belonging to me
  16. stock — goods
  17. bat — the animal
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. band — a ring
  20. stock — shares
  21. cold — not warm
  22. band — a music group
  23. lash — to lash out
  24. trunk — of a tree

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