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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. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  4. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  5. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  8. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  9. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  10. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  11. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  12. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  13. The ________________ market has crashed.
  14. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  15. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  16. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  17. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  18. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  19. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  20. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  21. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  22. The ________________ went through the wall.
  23. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  24. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. bass — low music
  2. hand — in cards
  3. stock — goods
  4. capital — money
  5. stem — to come from
  6. shower — rain
  7. wax — for sculpting
  8. shower — to wash
  9. capital — a city
  10. wax — in the ear
  11. stock — a soup base
  12. shower — a meteor shower
  13. stock — shares
  14. stem — a stem cell
  15. capital — a big letter
  16. hand — help
  17. nail — on a finger
  18. bass — the fish
  19. bass — the instrument
  20. nail — for a hammer
  21. wax — to grow
  22. nail — for a hammer
  23. stem — of a plant
  24. hand — part of the body

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