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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: chest · bat · file · bulb · hand · march · mate · pop

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  3. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. Have you found your soul ________________?
  6. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  7. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  8. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  9. The light ________________ burned out.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. I've got to change the light ________________.
  12. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  13. You don't need to ________________ round.
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  17. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  22. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  23. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  24. We're almost out of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. pop — music
  3. file — a tool
  4. chest — of your body
  5. mate — a partner
  6. chest — a box
  7. mate — to breed
  8. bulb — of a plant
  9. bulb — for light
  10. march — music
  11. bulb — for light
  12. mate — a friend
  13. pop — to visit
  14. march — the month
  15. file — a document
  16. hand — in cards
  17. march — the month
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. bat — in an idiom
  20. chest — of your body
  21. bat — the animal
  22. bat — for baseball
  23. file — a line of people
  24. pop — soda

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