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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. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  4. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  5. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  6. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  7. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  8. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  9. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  10. I've got to change the light ________________.
  11. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  12. The light ________________ burned out.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  15. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  16. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  17. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  18. Have you found your soul ________________?
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  21. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  24. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.

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

Answer key

  1. mate — a friend
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. cold — the Cold War
  4. straw — to clutch at straws
  5. wax — for sculpting
  6. tear — from crying
  7. hand — help
  8. band — a ring
  9. hand — part of the body
  10. bulb — for light
  11. wax — to grow
  12. bulb — for light
  13. cold — not warm
  14. tear — to rip
  15. bulb — of a plant
  16. straw — dry grass
  17. hand — in cards
  18. mate — a partner
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. straw — a straw man
  21. tear — from crying
  22. cold — an illness
  23. band — a music group
  24. mate — to breed

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