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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. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  4. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  5. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  6. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  7. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  8. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.
  9. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  12. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  13. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  16. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  17. There's no middle ________________.
  18. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — in the ear
  2. hand — help
  3. capital — a city
  4. wax — for sculpting
  5. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  6. hand — in cards
  7. wax — to grow
  8. ground — the earth
  9. snap — to snap out of it
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. kid — to tease
  12. ground — crushed
  13. snap — to speak sharply
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. capital — money
  16. snap — to click
  17. ground — a position
  18. kid — child

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