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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. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  2. Take your time. There's no ________________.
  3. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  6. I'll be taking the ________________.
  7. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  8. The water is too ________________.
  9. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. She got the top ________________ in the exam.
  13. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  14. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  15. That must've been a ________________.
  16. You shouldn't ________________ things.
  17. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  18. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  19. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  22. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  23. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  24. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. craft — a handicraft
  2. rush — hurry
  3. craft — a skill
  4. chest — of your body
  5. bat — the animal
  6. tube — the underground
  7. chest — a box
  8. cold — not warm
  9. mark — a trace
  10. cold — an illness
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. mark — a grade
  13. tube — a container
  14. craft — boats
  15. rush — a thrill
  16. rush — to hurry
  17. bat — in an idiom
  18. scale — size or range
  19. mark — to pay attention
  20. chest — of your body
  21. bat — for baseball
  22. scale — for weighing
  23. tube — in a tire
  24. scale — in music

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