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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 116 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 water is too ________________.
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  4. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  5. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  6. I want a large ________________ of toothpaste.
  7. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  8. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  9. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  12. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. I'll be taking the ________________.
  15. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  16. He is an ace ________________.
  17. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. I need a new inner ________________ for my bike tire.
  20. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  21. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  22. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.

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

Answer key

  1. cold — not warm
  2. file — a line of people
  3. straw — to clutch at straws
  4. wax — to grow
  5. content — happy
  6. tube — a container
  7. cold — an illness
  8. wax — for sculpting
  9. content — videos and posts
  10. file — a tool
  11. straw — dry grass
  12. cold — the Cold War
  13. tear — from crying
  14. tube — the underground
  15. pitcher — a jug
  16. pitcher — in baseball
  17. wax — in the ear
  18. file — a document
  19. tube — in a tire
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. tear — from crying
  22. content — the amount
  23. tear — to rip
  24. straw — a straw man

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