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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 116 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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. I've got to change the light ________________.
  8. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  9. The train was so full that I had to ________________ all the while.
  10. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  11. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. I'll be taking the ________________.
  14. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  17. This piece is in a major ________________.
  18. A smaller training pitch was installed beside the main ________________.
  19. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  20. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  21. I can't ________________ this cold.
  22. The water is too ________________.
  23. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  24. The light ________________ burned out.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — in a tire
  2. band — a ring
  3. band — a music group
  4. cold — an illness
  5. key — for a lock
  6. spring — the season
  7. bulb — for light
  8. bulb — of a plant
  9. stand — on your feet
  10. clip — a video
  11. clip — for paper
  12. clip — to cut
  13. tube — the underground
  14. spring — of water
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. band — a rubber band
  17. key — in music
  18. stand — for spectators
  19. key — the most important part
  20. spring — a coil
  21. stand — to bear
  22. cold — not warm
  23. tube — a container
  24. bulb — for light

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