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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 116 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 beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  2. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  3. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  4. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  5. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  6. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  7. That was a fun ________________.
  8. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  9. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  10. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  11. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  12. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  13. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  14. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  17. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  18. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  19. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  20. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  21. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  22. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  23. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  24. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. capital — a big letter
  2. shower — rain
  3. wax — in the ear
  4. shower — to wash
  5. wax — for sculpting
  6. branch — of a tree
  7. game — a match
  8. branch — of a bank
  9. scale — size or range
  10. branch — a division
  11. wax — to grow
  12. game — a kind of play
  13. bark — a dog's sound
  14. scale — for weighing
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. band — a music group
  17. scale — in music
  18. game — wild animals
  19. band — a rubber band
  20. capital — a city
  21. capital — money
  22. band — a ring
  23. bark — to shout
  24. bark — of a tree

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