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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. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  4. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  5. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  6. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  7. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  10. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  13. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  14. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  17. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  23. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  24. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — in the ear
  2. land — ground
  3. straw — a straw man
  4. rest — what's left
  5. wax — for sculpting
  6. craft — a handicraft
  7. craft — a skill
  8. prune — to trim
  9. wound — an injury
  10. rest — a break
  11. land — to come down
  12. craft — boats
  13. rest — what's left
  14. wax — to grow
  15. file — a tool
  16. wound — past of 'wind'
  17. wound — an injury
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. file — a line of people
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. land — a country
  22. prune — to trim
  23. straw — dry grass
  24. file — a document

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