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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 museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  2. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  3. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  6. Turn up the ________________ so we can feel the beat.
  7. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  8. I play ________________ in a jazz band.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  11. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  12. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  13. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  14. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  15. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  16. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  20. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  21. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  22. The fisherman caught a huge ________________.
  23. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  24. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. wax — for sculpting
  2. straw — dry grass
  3. content — happy
  4. hand — in cards
  5. content — the amount
  6. bass — low music
  7. perch — for a bird
  8. bass — the instrument
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. cap — of ice
  11. cap — a lid
  12. straw — a straw man
  13. bat — for baseball
  14. straw — to clutch at straws
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. hand — part of the body
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. hand — help
  19. bat — the animal
  20. perch — the fish
  21. wax — to grow
  22. bass — the fish
  23. cap — a hat
  24. wax — in the ear

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