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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. You don't need to ________________ round.
  2. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  3. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  4. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  5. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  8. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  9. We're almost out of ________________.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  14. I'll be taking the ________________.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  17. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  18. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  19. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  20. We're on a ________________ here.
  21. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  22. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  23. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. pop — to visit
  2. last — finally
  3. tube — a container
  4. face — to confront
  5. roll — a list
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. wind — moving air
  8. last — final
  9. pop — soda
  10. last — to go on
  11. face — part of the head
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. capital — a city
  14. tube — the underground
  15. file — a document
  16. roll — a cake
  17. wind — moving air
  18. face — to point toward
  19. file — a tool
  20. roll — on a roll
  21. pop — music
  22. file — a line of people
  23. tube — in a tire
  24. capital — money

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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