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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 girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  2. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  3. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  4. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  5. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  6. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  7. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  8. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  9. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  10. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  11. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  12. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  13. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  14. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  15. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  16. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  17. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  18. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  19. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  20. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  21. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  22. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  23. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. row — a line
  2. face — part of the head
  3. wax — for sculpting
  4. kid — to tease
  5. vault — an arched ceiling
  6. wax — to grow
  7. capital — a big letter
  8. kid — child
  9. vault — in gymnastics
  10. bat — the animal
  11. content — happy
  12. row — to paddle
  13. row — a quarrel
  14. capital — money
  15. bat — for baseball
  16. content — the amount
  17. capital — a city
  18. face — to point toward
  19. wax — in the ear
  20. content — videos and posts
  21. face — to confront
  22. bat — in an idiom
  23. vault — a safe
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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