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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. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  2. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  3. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  4. You can't go backstage without a ________________.
  5. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  6. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  7. We wanted to take a walk to ________________ the time.
  8. There's a computer ________________ on the table.
  9. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. Algeria has become a bargaining ________________ in a global game of poker.
  12. No doubt you will be able to ________________ the examination.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  15. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  16. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  17. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  18. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  19. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  20. The potato ________________ was salty and crunchy.
  21. He was locked up in a ________________.
  22. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  23. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  24. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — in the ear
  2. hand — in cards
  3. wax — for sculpting
  4. pass — a permit
  5. straw — a straw man
  6. chest — of your body
  7. pass — to spend time
  8. chip — in a computer
  9. chest — of your body
  10. cell — a phone
  11. chip — for betting
  12. pass — to succeed
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. wax — to grow
  15. chair — a professorship
  16. chest — a box
  17. chair — a leader
  18. cell — in biology
  19. hand — help
  20. chip — to eat
  21. cell — in a prison
  22. hand — part of the body
  23. chair — to sit on
  24. straw — to clutch at straws

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