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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 120 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. He works in a ________________ mill.
  2. She's very handy with a ________________.
  3. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  4. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  5. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  6. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  7. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  8. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  9. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  10. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  11. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  12. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  13. The ________________ change colour in autumn.
  14. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  15. That was a fun ________________.
  16. He always ________________ the window open while he sleeps.
  17. Many English words ________________ from Latin.
  18. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  19. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  20. The big green plant was starting to droop at the ________________.
  21. Scientists study ________________ cells to repair damaged tissue.
  22. The train ________________ at six o'clock.
  23. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  24. The moon will ________________ and wane.

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

Answer key

  1. saw — the tool
  2. saw — the tool
  3. wax — for sculpting
  4. content — happy
  5. game — a kind of play
  6. row — a quarrel
  7. content — the amount
  8. game — wild animals
  9. row — a line
  10. hand — help
  11. hand — in cards
  12. content — videos and posts
  13. leaves — of a tree
  14. row — to paddle
  15. game — a match
  16. leaves — lets stay
  17. stem — to come from
  18. hand — part of the body
  19. wax — in the ear
  20. stem — of a plant
  21. stem — a stem cell
  22. leaves — to go away
  23. saw — past of 'see'
  24. wax — to grow

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