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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. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  2. It's one o'clock ________________.
  3. I'll be taking the ________________.
  4. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  5. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  6. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  7. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  8. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  9. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  10. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  11. Have you settled on a ________________?
  12. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  13. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  14. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  15. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  18. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  19. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  20. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  21. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  24. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.

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

Answer key

  1. date — the fruit
  2. sharp — exactly
  3. tube — the underground
  4. bat — for baseball
  5. clip — a video
  6. net — in sport
  7. net — after costs
  8. drill — a practice
  9. march — music
  10. clip — for paper
  11. date — on the calendar
  12. drill — army training
  13. date — on the calendar
  14. clip — to cut
  15. march — the month
  16. drill — the tool
  17. sharp — with an edge
  18. sharp — clever
  19. march — the month
  20. tube — in a tire
  21. net — for catching
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. tube — a container
  24. bat — the animal

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