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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. Because of the accident, he'll have a limp for the ________________ of his life.
  2. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  3. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  4. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  5. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  8. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  9. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  10. False peace will not ________________.
  11. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  12. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  13. I would like to have a ________________ here.
  14. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  15. The ________________ of the members were all out of tune.
  16. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  17. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  18. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  19. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  20. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  21. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  22. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  23. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  24. Beijing is the ________________ of China.

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

Answer key

  1. rest — what's left
  2. prune — to trim
  3. wax — in the ear
  4. prune — the fruit
  5. last — finally
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. capital — money
  8. straw — dry grass
  9. file — a tool
  10. last — to go on
  11. field — farmland
  12. straw — to clutch at straws
  13. rest — a break
  14. wax — to grow
  15. rest — what's left
  16. file — a document
  17. file — a line of people
  18. wax — for sculpting
  19. last — final
  20. field — a subject
  21. field — for sport
  22. prune — to trim
  23. straw — a straw man
  24. capital — a city

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