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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. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  3. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  6. He was locked up in a ________________.
  7. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  8. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  9. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  10. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  11. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  12. It's your turn to ________________ the ball down the lane.
  13. Millions watch the Super ________________ every February.
  14. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  15. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  16. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean ________________.
  19. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  20. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  21. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — for sculpting
  2. straw — a straw man
  3. wax — in the ear
  4. prune — to trim
  5. chip — in a computer
  6. cell — in a prison
  7. wax — to grow
  8. mine — an explosive
  9. cell — a phone
  10. land — ground
  11. straw — dry grass
  12. bowl — to roll
  13. bowl — a football final
  14. mine — belonging to me
  15. chip — to eat
  16. prune — to trim
  17. cell — in biology
  18. bowl — a dish
  19. prune — the fruit
  20. chip — for betting
  21. mine — for digging
  22. land — to come down
  23. straw — to clutch at straws
  24. land — a country

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