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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. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  6. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  7. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  8. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  9. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  10. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  11. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  12. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  13. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  14. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  15. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  16. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  17. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  18. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  19. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  20. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  21. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  24. Hold the papers together with a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — in a tire
  2. calf — a young animal
  3. march — music
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. calf — a young animal
  6. march — the month
  7. rest — what's left
  8. wind — to turn a key
  9. kid — child
  10. rest — a break
  11. wind — moving air
  12. calf — of the leg
  13. rest — what's left
  14. bat — for baseball
  15. bat — in an idiom
  16. wind — moving air
  17. clip — to cut
  18. tube — a container
  19. kid — to tease
  20. bat — the animal
  21. march — the month
  22. tube — the underground
  23. clip — a video
  24. clip — for paper

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