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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. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  2. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  3. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  4. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  5. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  6. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  7. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  8. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  9. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  10. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  11. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  12. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  13. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  17. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  18. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  19. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  20. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  21. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  22. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  23. How do you ________________ your surname?
  24. He was locked up in a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — to grow
  2. cell — a phone
  3. wax — in the ear
  4. shower — to wash
  5. track — a song
  6. spell — a short time
  7. wound — an injury
  8. row — a line
  9. track — to keep track
  10. capital — a big letter
  11. track — a path
  12. row — a quarrel
  13. shower — rain
  14. wound — an injury
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. capital — a city
  17. cell — in biology
  18. spell — magic
  19. wound — past of 'wind'
  20. capital — money
  21. row — to paddle
  22. wax — for sculpting
  23. spell — letters
  24. cell — in a prison

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