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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. I'll be taking the ________________.
  2. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  3. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. We are ________________ to obey laws.
  6. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  9. That was ________________ to happen.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  12. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  13. He reached out and took down a small leather ________________ book.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. The ________________ market has crashed.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  18. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  19. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  20. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  23. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  24. Boris sat near the fire ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — the underground
  2. pit — a fruit stone
  3. stock — a soup base
  4. spring — a coil
  5. bound — obliged
  6. tube — in a tire
  7. land — to come down
  8. spring — the season
  9. bound — certain
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. pit — in a race
  12. tube — a container
  13. bound — tied together
  14. land — a country
  15. stock — shares
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. stock — goods
  18. drill — the tool
  19. land — ground
  20. drill — army training
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. drill — a practice
  23. spring — of water
  24. pit — a hole

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