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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. Did you ________________ the meat?
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  4. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  5. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  6. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  7. Have you found your soul ________________?
  8. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  9. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  10. The ________________ took off on time.
  11. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  12. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  13. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  14. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  17. Males and females first ________________ when two years old.
  18. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  19. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  20. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  21. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  24. Excuse me, sorry ________________, you haven't got the time have you?

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

Answer key

  1. season — to add flavour
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. march — the month
  4. wax — to grow
  5. bat — in an idiom
  6. plane — a tool
  7. mate — a partner
  8. wax — for sculpting
  9. bat — for baseball
  10. plane — an aircraft
  11. march — music
  12. kid — child
  13. season — in sport
  14. plane — in geometry
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. bat — the animal
  17. mate — to breed
  18. shower — rain
  19. shower — to wash
  20. march — the month
  21. kid — to tease
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. season — of the year
  24. mate — a friend

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