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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 116 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. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  2. I've got to change the light ________________.
  3. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  4. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  11. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  12. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  13. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  14. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  15. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  16. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  17. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  18. Plant the tulip ________________ before the first frost.
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  21. The light ________________ burned out.
  22. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. lash — a whip stroke
  2. bulb — for light
  3. wax — for sculpting
  4. perch — for a bird
  5. cold — an illness
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. cold — not warm
  8. perch — the fish
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. band — a music group
  11. band — a rubber band
  12. bat — for baseball
  13. band — a ring
  14. lash — an eyelash
  15. straw — a straw man
  16. wax — to grow
  17. straw — to clutch at straws
  18. bulb — of a plant
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. lash — to lash out
  21. bulb — for light
  22. bat — the animal
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. straw — dry grass

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