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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 seem to be developing a ________________.
  2. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  3. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  4. I'll be taking the ________________.
  5. In all probability, the ________________ will fall.
  6. Don't do anything ________________.
  7. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  8. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  9. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  10. She took a metal box from the top of the kitchen ________________.
  11. What do you think of the new ________________?
  12. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. False peace will not ________________.
  15. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  16. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  24. We're on a ________________ here.

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

Answer key

  1. rash — on the skin
  2. tube — a container
  3. last — finally
  4. tube — the underground
  5. cabinet — ministers
  6. rash — hasty
  7. rash — a series
  8. roll — a cake
  9. bat — the animal
  10. cabinet — a cupboard
  11. cabinet — ministers
  12. last — final
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. last — to go on
  15. spring — the season
  16. spring — a coil
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. cold — not warm
  19. roll — a list
  20. spring — of water
  21. tube — in a tire
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. cold — an illness
  24. roll — on a roll

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