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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. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  2. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  6. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  7. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  8. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  9. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  12. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  13. When are we going to ________________?
  14. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  15. The water is too ________________.
  16. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  17. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  18. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  19. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  20. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  21. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  22. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  23. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  24. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to snap out of it
  2. content — the amount
  3. land — a country
  4. content — happy
  5. content — videos and posts
  6. trunk — of a car
  7. kick — a thrill
  8. stem — to come from
  9. cold — the Cold War
  10. land — ground
  11. wax — in the ear
  12. snap — to click
  13. land — to come down
  14. kick — in football
  15. cold — not warm
  16. wax — for sculpting
  17. cold — an illness
  18. stem — of a plant
  19. trunk — of a tree
  20. wax — to grow
  21. trunk — of an elephant
  22. kick — with a leg
  23. snap — to speak sharply
  24. stem — a stem cell

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