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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 116 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. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  2. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  3. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  4. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  13. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  14. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  15. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  16. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  17. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  18. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  19. The water is too ________________.
  20. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  24. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. tube — in a tire
  3. scale — in music
  4. tube — a container
  5. spring — the season
  6. spring — of water
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. face — to point toward
  9. spring — a coil
  10. pass — to spend time
  11. march — the month
  12. pass — a permit
  13. march — music
  14. face — to confront
  15. pass — to succeed
  16. bass — low music
  17. scale — for weighing
  18. bass — the fish
  19. cold — not warm
  20. face — part of the head
  21. cold — an illness
  22. tube — the underground
  23. bass — the instrument
  24. scale — size or range

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