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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. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  2. The tickets are free of ________________.
  3. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  4. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  5. Where can I ________________ my mobile?
  6. My father caught me by the ________________.
  7. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  8. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  9. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  10. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  11. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  12. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  13. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  14. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  15. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  16. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  17. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  18. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  19. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  20. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  21. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  22. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  23. Jason, who was in ________________ of the project, was dismissed for corruption.
  24. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?

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

Answer key

  1. cap — of ice
  2. charge — a price
  3. kid — child
  4. wax — in the ear
  5. charge — electricity
  6. arm — part of the body
  7. row — to paddle
  8. wax — to grow
  9. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  10. file — a tool
  11. band — a music group
  12. arm — part of the body
  13. wax — for sculpting
  14. band — a rubber band
  15. cap — a hat
  16. row — a line
  17. kid — to tease
  18. file — a document
  19. arm — a part of something
  20. row — a quarrel
  21. file — a line of people
  22. band — a ring
  23. charge — in control
  24. cap — a lid

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