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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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  3. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  7. Did you ________________ the button?
  8. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  9. How do you ________________ your surname?
  10. The water is too ________________.
  11. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  12. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  13. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  14. The function of the ________________ is to provide the common people with facts.
  15. Manchester University ________________ is the university's academic publishing house.
  16. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  20. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  21. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  24. I'll be taking the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. tube — in a tire
  3. tube — a container
  4. wind — moving air
  5. cold — an illness
  6. capital — money
  7. press — to push
  8. spell — a short time
  9. spell — letters
  10. cold — not warm
  11. wind — to turn a key
  12. craft — a handicraft
  13. craft — boats
  14. press — newspapers
  15. press — a publisher
  16. cold — the Cold War
  17. wind — moving air
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. band — a music group
  20. craft — a skill
  21. capital — a big letter
  22. capital — a city
  23. spell — magic
  24. tube — the underground

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