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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 was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  5. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  6. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  7. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  8. The King held a masked ________________.
  9. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  10. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  11. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  12. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  13. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  14. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  15. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  20. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. Have you settled on a ________________?
  23. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  24. It's one o'clock ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. ball — a great time
  2. hand — in cards
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. hand — part of the body
  5. wax — for sculpting
  6. wax — to grow
  7. dip — to dunk
  8. ball — a dance
  9. wax — in the ear
  10. bark — a dog's sound
  11. dip — a sauce
  12. date — the fruit
  13. sharp — with an edge
  14. bark — of a tree
  15. sharp — clever
  16. hand — help
  17. bark — to shout
  18. cold — not warm
  19. dip — to sink
  20. ball — a round shape
  21. cold — an illness
  22. date — on the calendar
  23. date — on the calendar
  24. sharp — exactly

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