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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 124 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 flowers bloom in the ________________.
  3. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  6. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  7. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  8. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  11. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  12. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  13. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  14. Where did you ________________ them?
  15. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  16. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  17. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  18. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  19. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  20. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  21. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  24. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — for sculpting
  2. spring — the season
  3. mug — a face
  4. wind — moving air
  5. chest — a box
  6. bark — of a tree
  7. band — a music group
  8. wax — to grow
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. bark — to shout
  11. chest — of your body
  12. bark — a dog's sound
  13. spring — a coil
  14. mug — to rob
  15. wax — in the ear
  16. band — a ring
  17. mug — a cup
  18. bat — the animal
  19. chest — of your body
  20. wind — moving air
  21. spring — of water
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. bat — for baseball
  24. band — a rubber band

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