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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 need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  2. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  3. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  4. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  5. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  6. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  7. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  8. Is the royal ________________ prepared for the journey?
  9. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  10. My father caught me by the ________________.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  13. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  16. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  17. Have you met the new head ________________?
  18. The ________________ told me I needed to practice harder.
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  21. There's no middle ________________.
  22. I'll be taking the ________________.
  23. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  24. Add some ________________ pepper to it.

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. drill — a practice
  4. march — music
  5. arm — a part of something
  6. ground — the earth
  7. band — a music group
  8. coach — pulled by horses
  9. clip — to cut
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. march — the month
  12. drill — the tool
  13. drill — army training
  14. march — the month
  15. clip — for paper
  16. clip — a video
  17. coach — a trainer
  18. coach — a trainer
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. tube — a container
  21. ground — a position
  22. tube — the underground
  23. arm — part of the body
  24. ground — crushed

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