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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. Are you the only one who has a ________________ to this door?
  2. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  3. When are we going to ________________?
  4. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  5. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. The water is too ________________.
  8. This piece is in a major ________________.
  9. "I don't like games like this," squeaked the ________________.
  10. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  11. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  12. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  15. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  16. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  17. I thought I heard a ________________ in the kitchen.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  20. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  21. Hard work is the ________________ to success.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  24. Should I buy a wireless ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. key — for a lock
  2. land — ground
  3. land — to come down
  4. wax — for sculpting
  5. bark — to shout
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. cold — not warm
  8. key — in music
  9. mouse — the animal
  10. bark — of a tree
  11. bat — the animal
  12. prune — to trim
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. bat — in an idiom
  15. cold — an illness
  16. prune — to trim
  17. mouse — the animal
  18. land — a country
  19. bat — for baseball
  20. prune — the fruit
  21. key — the most important part
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. wax — to grow
  24. mouse — for a computer

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