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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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  3. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  4. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  5. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  6. ________________ games are popular in Germany.
  7. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  8. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  11. She's very handy with a ________________.
  12. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  13. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  14. He works in a ________________ mill.
  15. He was locked up in a ________________.
  16. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  17. I'm currently on the ________________ of directors.
  18. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  19. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  20. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  21. The captain is giving the order to ________________ the ship.
  22. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. That was a fun ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. wax — to grow
  3. band — a rubber band
  4. band — a music group
  5. row — a line
  6. board — a flat piece
  7. bat — the animal
  8. game — a kind of play
  9. cell — a phone
  10. cell — in biology
  11. saw — the tool
  12. bat — in an idiom
  13. wax — for sculpting
  14. saw — the tool
  15. cell — in a prison
  16. game — wild animals
  17. board — a committee
  18. wax — in the ear
  19. row — a quarrel
  20. row — to paddle
  21. board — to get on
  22. saw — past of 'see'
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. game — a match

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