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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. He still wears his gold wedding ________________.
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. Did you ________________ the meat?
  4. She's very handy with a ________________.
  5. Where did you ________________ them?
  6. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  7. He was locked up in a ________________.
  8. We ________________ that the plan would end in failure.
  9. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  12. Is that Pat Hanrahan's ________________ looking hungry and willing.
  13. He works in a ________________ mill.
  14. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  15. Spring is a pleasant ________________.
  16. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  17. They retained the League and Cup in his second ________________.
  18. He put a rubber ________________ around the bundle of letters.
  19. He refilled his coffee ________________.
  20. He's the lead singer in a rock ________________.
  21. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  22. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  23. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  24. The flowers bloom in the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. band — a ring
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. season — to add flavour
  4. saw — the tool
  5. mug — to rob
  6. shower — to wash
  7. cell — in a prison
  8. saw — past of 'see'
  9. wax — for sculpting
  10. spring — of water
  11. spring — a coil
  12. mug — a face
  13. saw — the tool
  14. shower — rain
  15. season — of the year
  16. cell — a phone
  17. season — in sport
  18. band — a rubber band
  19. mug — a cup
  20. band — a music group
  21. cell — in biology
  22. shower — a meteor shower
  23. wax — to grow
  24. spring — the season

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