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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. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  3. She had a strange look on her ________________.
  4. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  5. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  6. Sooner or later you'll have to ________________ the truth.
  7. When are we going to ________________?
  8. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  9. Our bedroom windows ________________ the sea.
  10. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. False peace will not ________________.
  13. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  14. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  15. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  18. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  19. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  20. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  21. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  22. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  23. How do you ________________ your surname?
  24. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. wax — for sculpting
  3. face — part of the head
  4. spell — a short time
  5. spell — magic
  6. face — to confront
  7. land — to come down
  8. row — a quarrel
  9. face — to point toward
  10. capital — money
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. last — to go on
  13. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  14. capital — a city
  15. wax — in the ear
  16. kid — child
  17. row — to paddle
  18. row — a line
  19. wax — to grow
  20. kid — to tease
  21. last — finally
  22. last — final
  23. spell — letters
  24. land — a country

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