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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. That was a fun ________________.
  2. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  3. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  4. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  5. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  6. The ________________ took off on time.
  7. Borders were drawn on the map using a ________________, with no regard for cultural realities on the ground.
  8. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  9. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  10. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  11. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  12. The people resisted their cruel ________________.
  13. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  14. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  15. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  16. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  17. The water is too ________________.
  18. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  19. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  20. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  21. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  22. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  23. A ________________ helps one to draw a straight line.
  24. This looks like a gunshot ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. game — a match
  2. wax — for sculpting
  3. march — the month
  4. wax — in the ear
  5. shower — a meteor shower
  6. plane — an aircraft
  7. ruler — for measuring
  8. shower — rain
  9. game — a kind of play
  10. cold — an illness
  11. march — the month
  12. ruler — a monarch
  13. wound — past of 'wind'
  14. game — wild animals
  15. cold — the Cold War
  16. plane — a tool
  17. cold — not warm
  18. plane — in geometry
  19. wound — an injury
  20. march — music
  21. shower — to wash
  22. wax — to grow
  23. ruler — for measuring
  24. wound — an injury

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