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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. Why do cosmetics have an expiration ________________?
  2. A ________________ is a sweet brown fruit from a palm tree.
  3. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  4. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  5. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  6. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  7. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  8. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  9. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  12. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  13. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  14. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  15. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  16. Have you settled on a ________________?
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. She's very handy with a ________________.
  19. He is an ace ________________.
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. He works in a ________________ mill.
  23. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  24. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.

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

Answer key

  1. date — on the calendar
  2. date — the fruit
  3. cold — an illness
  4. wax — for sculpting
  5. wax — in the ear
  6. row — to paddle
  7. file — a tool
  8. file — a document
  9. pitcher — a jug
  10. chest — of your body
  11. pitcher — a jug
  12. row — a line
  13. file — a line of people
  14. row — a quarrel
  15. chest — of your body
  16. date — on the calendar
  17. chest — a box
  18. saw — the tool
  19. pitcher — in baseball
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. cold — not warm
  22. saw — the tool
  23. wax — to grow
  24. saw — past of 'see'

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