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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 assure you, everything's ________________.
  2. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  3. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  4. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  5. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  6. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  7. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  8. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  9. False peace will not ________________.
  10. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  11. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  12. How do you ________________ your surname?
  13. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  14. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  15. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  18. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  19. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  20. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  21. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  22. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  23. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  24. The moon will ________________ and wane.

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

Answer key

  1. fine — all right
  2. last — final
  3. fine — high quality
  4. last — finally
  5. spell — magic
  6. file — a tool
  7. spell — a short time
  8. capital — a big letter
  9. last — to go on
  10. file — a document
  11. wax — for sculpting
  12. spell — letters
  13. wind — to turn a key
  14. fine — a penalty
  15. wind — moving air
  16. capital — a city
  17. capital — money
  18. straw — to clutch at straws
  19. wind — moving air
  20. file — a line of people
  21. straw — a straw man
  22. wax — in the ear
  23. straw — dry grass
  24. wax — to grow

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