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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. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  2. A black ________________ roamed the forest.
  3. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  4. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  5. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  6. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  7. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  8. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  9. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  10. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  11. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  12. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  15. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  16. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  17. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  18. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  19. When are we going to ________________?
  20. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  21. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  22. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  23. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  24. The polar ice ________________ is melting.

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

Answer key

  1. bear — to put up with
  2. bear — the animal
  3. land — a country
  4. land — ground
  5. march — the month
  6. wax — for sculpting
  7. cap — a hat
  8. face — to point toward
  9. scale — in music
  10. wax — in the ear
  11. cap — a lid
  12. cold — an illness
  13. cold — not warm
  14. march — music
  15. wax — to grow
  16. bear — the animal
  17. face — to confront
  18. scale — for weighing
  19. land — to come down
  20. cold — the Cold War
  21. face — part of the head
  22. scale — size or range
  23. march — the month
  24. cap — of ice

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