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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 need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  2. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  3. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  4. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  5. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  6. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  7. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. We need to address the ________________ of the problem.
  10. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  11. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  12. The ________________ of a dandelion is edible, too.
  13. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  14. The ________________ market has crashed.
  15. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  16. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  17. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  18. Have you settled on a ________________?
  19. The ________________ of 'teacher' is 'teach'.
  20. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  21. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  22. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  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. shower — to wash
  3. squash — the sport
  4. tube — a container
  5. date — the fruit
  6. bat — for baseball
  7. bat — in an idiom
  8. kid — child
  9. root — the cause
  10. squash — the vegetable
  11. stock — a soup base
  12. root — of a plant
  13. stock — goods
  14. stock — shares
  15. squash — to crush
  16. kid — to tease
  17. bat — the animal
  18. date — on the calendar
  19. root — of a word
  20. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  21. date — on the calendar
  22. shower — rain
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  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