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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 was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  2. I'll be taking the ________________.
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  8. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  9. The King held a masked ________________.
  10. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  11. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  12. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  13. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  14. We usually eat with a knife, ________________ and spoon.
  15. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. We came to a ________________ in the road and had no idea which direction to go.
  20. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  21. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  24. Use a garden ________________ to turn the soil.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a great time
  2. tube — the underground
  3. spring — of water
  4. tube — in a tire
  5. content — happy
  6. march — music
  7. spring — the season
  8. march — the month
  9. ball — a dance
  10. content — videos and posts
  11. tube — a container
  12. track — to keep track
  13. file — a tool
  14. fork — to eat with
  15. march — the month
  16. file — a line of people
  17. spring — a coil
  18. file — a document
  19. fork — in a road
  20. ball — a round shape
  21. track — a song
  22. content — the amount
  23. track — a path
  24. fork — a garden tool

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