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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'll be taking the ________________.
  2. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  7. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  8. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  9. The King held a masked ________________.
  10. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  11. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  12. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  13. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  17. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  18. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  21. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  22. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  23. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  24. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.

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

Answer key

  1. tube — the underground
  2. ball — a great time
  3. march — music
  4. wax — in the ear
  5. cold — an illness
  6. branch — a division
  7. branch — of a tree
  8. snap — to snap out of it
  9. ball — a dance
  10. bear — to put up with
  11. branch — of a bank
  12. bear — the animal
  13. ball — a round shape
  14. cold — not warm
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. wax — to grow
  17. march — the month
  18. bear — the animal
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. snap — to click
  21. snap — to speak sharply
  22. march — the month
  23. wax — for sculpting
  24. tube — a container

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