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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. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  2. Did you ________________ the meat?
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  5. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  9. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  10. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  11. The ball is in your ________________.
  12. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  13. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  14. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  15. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  16. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  17. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  18. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  19. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  20. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  21. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  22. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  23. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  24. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — in the ear
  2. season — to add flavour
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. mine — for digging
  5. season — in sport
  6. shower — rain
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. season — of the year
  9. court — of law
  10. straw — to clutch at straws
  11. court — for sport
  12. club — for dancing
  13. mine — an explosive
  14. wax — for sculpting
  15. net — for catching
  16. net — after costs
  17. wax — to grow
  18. net — in sport
  19. club — for golf
  20. straw — dry grass
  21. court — of a king
  22. club — a group
  23. shower — to wash
  24. shower — a meteor shower

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