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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. The hot cup left a ________________ on the table.
  2. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  3. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  4. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  5. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  6. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  7. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  10. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. False peace will not ________________.
  13. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  14. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  15. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  16. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  17. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  20. ________________ my words: he'll be late again.
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  24. She got the top ________________ in the exam.

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

Answer key

  1. mark — a trace
  2. hand — help
  3. wax — in the ear
  4. wind — moving air
  5. chest — of your body
  6. content — videos and posts
  7. wax — for sculpting
  8. content — happy
  9. clip — a video
  10. last — final
  11. content — the amount
  12. last — to go on
  13. wind — moving air
  14. hand — part of the body
  15. wind — to turn a key
  16. clip — to cut
  17. chest — of your body
  18. clip — for paper
  19. wax — to grow
  20. mark — to pay attention
  21. hand — in cards
  22. chest — a box
  23. last — finally
  24. mark — a grade

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