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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. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  4. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  5. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  6. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  7. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  8. I'll be taking the ________________.
  9. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  13. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  14. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  15. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  16. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  17. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  18. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  19. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. There's no middle ________________.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. When was this ________________ built?
  24. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.

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

Answer key

  1. march — the month
  2. cold — not warm
  3. tube — a container
  4. temple — a place of worship
  5. temple — side of the head
  6. march — music
  7. bark — to shout
  8. tube — the underground
  9. bark — a dog's sound
  10. file — a tool
  11. cold — an illness
  12. file — a line of people
  13. bark — of a tree
  14. fall — the season
  15. march — the month
  16. ground — the earth
  17. fall — to drop
  18. tube — in a tire
  19. ground — crushed
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. ground — a position
  22. file — a document
  23. temple — a place of worship
  24. fall — to drop

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