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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. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  2. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  3. In geometry, a flat surface is called a ________________.
  4. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  5. My mare is ________________ in color.
  6. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  7. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  8. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  9. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  10. The ________________ took off on time.
  11. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  12. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  15. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  16. The carpenter used a ________________ to smooth the door.
  17. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  18. A ________________ is just a dried plum.
  19. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  20. Close the lid of the trash can to keep odors and pests at ________________.
  21. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  22. The sailing ship dropped anchor in the ________________.
  23. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  24. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — to tease
  2. kid — child
  3. plane — in geometry
  4. prune — to trim
  5. bay — a horse colour
  6. capital — a big letter
  7. wax — for sculpting
  8. capital — a city
  9. cold — an illness
  10. plane — an aircraft
  11. chest — a box
  12. chest — of your body
  13. cold — not warm
  14. wax — to grow
  15. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  16. plane — a tool
  17. prune — to trim
  18. prune — the fruit
  19. cold — the Cold War
  20. bay — to keep at bay
  21. wax — in the ear
  22. bay — a part of the sea
  23. chest — of your body
  24. capital — money

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