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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. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  4. We're on a ________________ here.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. The water is too ________________.
  7. Boris sat near the fire ________________.
  8. The speedboat left a long ________________ behind it.
  9. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  10. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  11. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  14. I didn't ________________ up well this morning.
  15. Jarno Trulli was disqualified for passing a red light at the ________________ exit.
  16. Friends gathered at the ________________ to remember him.
  17. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  18. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  19. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  20. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. Have you ever swallowed an apricot ________________?
  23. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  24. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — to grow
  2. chest — of your body
  3. club — for golf
  4. roll — on a roll
  5. chest — of your body
  6. cold — not warm
  7. pit — a hole
  8. wake — a trail
  9. club — for dancing
  10. wax — for sculpting
  11. cold — the Cold War
  12. cold — an illness
  13. chest — a box
  14. wake — to stop sleeping
  15. pit — in a race
  16. wake — before a funeral
  17. club — a group
  18. wax — in the ear
  19. shower — rain
  20. roll — a list
  21. shower — to wash
  22. pit — a fruit stone
  23. shower — a meteor shower
  24. roll — a cake

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