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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 need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  2. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. I'll be taking the ________________.
  6. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  7. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  8. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  9. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  10. When are we going to ________________?
  11. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  12. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  13. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  14. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  17. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  18. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  19. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  20. When was this ________________ built?
  21. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  22. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — in a tire
  2. land — a country
  3. cold — not warm
  4. land — ground
  5. tube — the underground
  6. wound — past of 'wind'
  7. temple — a place of worship
  8. wound — an injury
  9. tube — a container
  10. land — to come down
  11. shower — rain
  12. pass — to succeed
  13. ruler — a monarch
  14. temple — side of the head
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. cold — an illness
  17. shower — to wash
  18. ruler — for measuring
  19. ruler — for measuring
  20. temple — a place of worship
  21. pass — a permit
  22. wound — an injury
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. pass — to spend time

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