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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. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  2. A ________________ is equal to sixteen ounces.
  3. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  4. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  5. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  6. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  7. Rodrigo's family went to the dog ________________ to adopt a dog.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  10. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  13. Jeff had to ________________ the pavement for three months before he found a job.
  14. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  17. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  18. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. pound — a weight
  3. wind — moving air
  4. cold — an illness
  5. wax — for sculpting
  6. fan — to cool the air
  7. pound — for dogs
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. chest — of your body
  10. wax — in the ear
  11. cold — not warm
  12. wax — to grow
  13. pound — to hit hard
  14. chest — a box
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. chest — of your body
  17. wind — moving air
  18. fan — a supporter

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