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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. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  2. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  3. He was locked up in a ________________.
  4. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  5. Is it always a sin to tell a ________________?
  6. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  7. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  8. A ________________ is a veil over the lips.
  9. He is an ace ________________.
  10. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  11. The water is too ________________.
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  14. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  15. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  16. That was a fun ________________.
  17. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  20. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  21. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  22. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  23. The hunter does not ________________ down with the prey.
  24. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.

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

Answer key

  1. pitcher — a jug
  2. deal — an agreement
  3. cell — in a prison
  4. game — a kind of play
  5. lie — an untruth
  6. pitcher — a jug
  7. cold — the Cold War
  8. lie — an untruth
  9. pitcher — in baseball
  10. wax — in the ear
  11. cold — not warm
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. straw — to clutch at straws
  14. cell — a phone
  15. deal — a big deal
  16. game — a match
  17. wax — to grow
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. deal — to handle
  20. game — wild animals
  21. wax — for sculpting
  22. cell — in biology
  23. lie — to recline
  24. cold — an illness

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