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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. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  6. The room was ________________ black, so I couldn't see a thing.
  7. False peace will not ________________.
  8. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  9. The players ran onto the football ________________.
  10. We're on a ________________ here.
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  15. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  16. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  17. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  18. I'll be taking the ________________.
  19. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  20. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  21. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. She's preparing to ________________ her idea to the investors.
  24. At ________________, we arrived at the village.

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

Answer key

  1. roll — a list
  2. hand — help
  3. last — final
  4. tear — from crying
  5. spring — the season
  6. pitch — completely
  7. last — to go on
  8. tube — in a tire
  9. pitch — a sports field
  10. roll — on a roll
  11. hand — in cards
  12. spring — a coil
  13. tear — from crying
  14. march — music
  15. march — the month
  16. march — the month
  17. roll — a cake
  18. tube — the underground
  19. tear — to rip
  20. spring — of water
  21. tube — a container
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. pitch — a sales talk
  24. last — finally

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