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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. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  2. The water is too ________________.
  3. The ________________ market has crashed.
  4. We're on a ________________ here.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  7. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  10. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  11. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  15. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  16. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. What's the difference between broth and ________________?
  19. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  20. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  21. The supermarket has a large ________________ of merchandise.
  22. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  23. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  24. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.

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

Answer key

  1. roll — a cake
  2. cold — not warm
  3. stock — shares
  4. roll — on a roll
  5. cold — an illness
  6. kid — child
  7. wax — in the ear
  8. kid — to tease
  9. wax — for sculpting
  10. scale — in music
  11. hand — part of the body
  12. hand — help
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. cold — the Cold War
  15. trunk — of an elephant
  16. trunk — of a tree
  17. hand — in cards
  18. stock — a soup base
  19. wax — to grow
  20. roll — a list
  21. stock — goods
  22. scale — size or range
  23. trunk — of a car
  24. scale — for weighing

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