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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. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  2. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  3. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  4. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  5. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  6. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  7. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  8. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  9. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  10. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  11. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  12. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  13. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  16. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  17. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  18. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  19. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  22. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  23. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  24. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.

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

Answer key

  1. content — the amount
  2. face — part of the head
  3. band — a music group
  4. face — to point toward
  5. spring — of water
  6. scale — size or range
  7. drill — a practice
  8. prune — to trim
  9. spring — a coil
  10. drill — the tool
  11. content — happy
  12. wax — in the ear
  13. scale — in music
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. wax — to grow
  16. wax — for sculpting
  17. face — to confront
  18. content — videos and posts
  19. band — a ring
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. scale — for weighing
  22. spring — the season
  23. prune — to trim
  24. drill — army training

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