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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 met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  2. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  3. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  4. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  5. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  6. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  7. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  10. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  11. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  12. I'll be taking the ________________.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  15. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  16. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  21. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  22. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. mine — belonging to me
  2. bass — the fish
  3. pound — to hit hard
  4. scale — in music
  5. pound — for dogs
  6. scale — for weighing
  7. tube — a container
  8. cold — not warm
  9. pound — a weight
  10. bass — low music
  11. straw — dry grass
  12. tube — the underground
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. bass — the instrument
  15. scale — size or range
  16. drill — the tool
  17. cold — an illness
  18. mine — for digging
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. drill — army training
  21. drill — a practice
  22. tube — in a tire
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. straw — a straw man

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