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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. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  2. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  3. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  4. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  5. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  6. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  11. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  12. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  13. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. How do you ________________ your surname?
  17. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  18. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  21. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  24. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — in a tire
  2. pit — a fruit stone
  3. file — a document
  4. band — a ring
  5. tube — a container
  6. hand — help
  7. cold — an illness
  8. court — for sport
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. file — a line of people
  11. court — of a king
  12. pit — in a race
  13. spell — magic
  14. cold — not warm
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. spell — letters
  17. band — a music group
  18. file — a tool
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. spell — a short time
  21. pit — a hole
  22. tube — the underground
  23. hand — in cards
  24. court — of law

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