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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. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  2. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  3. There's no middle ________________.
  4. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  5. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  6. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  9. Add some ________________ pepper to it.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  12. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  13. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  14. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  15. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  18. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  19. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  20. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  21. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  22. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  23. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  24. The ________________ was covered with snow, as far as the eye could see.

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

Answer key

  1. fan — a supporter
  2. chest — of your body
  3. ground — a position
  4. race — humankind
  5. rest — what's left
  6. wax — to grow
  7. file — a tool
  8. fan — a supporter
  9. ground — crushed
  10. chest — of your body
  11. drill — the tool
  12. race — the arms race
  13. fan — to cool the air
  14. rest — what's left
  15. drill — army training
  16. chest — a box
  17. rest — a break
  18. file — a line of people
  19. wax — for sculpting
  20. race — a contest
  21. file — a document
  22. wax — in the ear
  23. drill — a practice
  24. ground — the earth

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