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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 museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  4. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  5. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  6. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  7. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  8. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  9. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  10. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  11. That was a fun ________________.
  12. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  13. I seem to be developing a ________________.
  14. The party suffered for the ________________ of party-switching.
  15. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  16. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  17. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Don't do anything ________________.
  20. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  21. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  22. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  23. The ________________ market has crashed.
  24. The moon will ________________ and wane.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — for sculpting
  2. cold — not warm
  3. game — a kind of play
  4. game — wild animals
  5. stock — goods
  6. prune — the fruit
  7. hand — part of the body
  8. prune — to trim
  9. hand — in cards
  10. drill — the tool
  11. game — a match
  12. stock — a soup base
  13. rash — on the skin
  14. rash — a series
  15. hand — help
  16. drill — army training
  17. wax — in the ear
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. rash — hasty
  20. prune — to trim
  21. cold — an illness
  22. drill — a practice
  23. stock — shares
  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