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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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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: shower · deal · tube · bass · craft · scale · row · spring

  1. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  2. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  3. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  4. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  5. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  8. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  11. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  12. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  13. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  14. I'll be taking the ________________.
  15. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  16. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  17. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  18. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  19. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  20. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  23. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  24. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a quarrel
  2. bass — low music
  3. shower — to wash
  4. bass — the instrument
  5. deal — to handle
  6. spring — the season
  7. craft — boats
  8. scale — size or range
  9. spring — a coil
  10. craft — a handicraft
  11. tube — in a tire
  12. bass — the fish
  13. spring — of water
  14. tube — the underground
  15. deal — a big deal
  16. craft — a skill
  17. deal — an agreement
  18. row — a line
  19. scale — for weighing
  20. shower — rain
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. row — to paddle
  23. scale — in music
  24. tube — a container

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