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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 like lots of butter on my ________________ in the morning.
  2. After the show, she was the ________________ of the town.
  3. The ball is in your ________________.
  4. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  5. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  6. I'll be taking the ________________.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. I would like to propose a ________________ on your birthday.
  9. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  10. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  13. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  16. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  17. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  18. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  19. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  20. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  21. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  22. He was locked up in a ________________.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. toast — bread
  2. toast — the most admired
  3. court — for sport
  4. cell — in biology
  5. tube — in a tire
  6. tube — the underground
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. toast — a drink to someone
  9. wind — moving air
  10. court — of a king
  11. bat — the animal
  12. wind — moving air
  13. tube — a container
  14. court — of law
  15. deal — an agreement
  16. deal — a big deal
  17. deal — to handle
  18. cell — a phone
  19. capital — a city
  20. bat — in an idiom
  21. wind — to turn a key
  22. cell — in a prison
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. capital — money

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