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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. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  2. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  3. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  4. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  5. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  6. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  9. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  10. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  11. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  12. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  13. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. How do you ________________ your surname?
  16. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  17. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  18. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  19. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  22. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  23. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  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 — in the ear
  2. wax — for sculpting
  3. spell — magic
  4. bat — the animal
  5. bass — low music
  6. bass — the instrument
  7. game — a match
  8. bat — in an idiom
  9. march — the month
  10. march — music
  11. scale — size or range
  12. bass — the fish
  13. game — wild animals
  14. shower — rain
  15. spell — letters
  16. spell — a short time
  17. scale — for weighing
  18. march — the month
  19. game — a kind of play
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. shower — a meteor shower
  22. shower — to wash
  23. scale — in music
  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