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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. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  2. He who climbs up, will ________________ down.
  3. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  4. The water is too ________________.
  5. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  6. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  7. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  8. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  11. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  12. In the ________________, covers are put over the fans in trains.
  13. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  14. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  15. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  16. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  17. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  18. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  19. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  20. My stomach aches so much that I can't ________________ asleep.
  21. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  22. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  23. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  24. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?

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

Answer key

  1. snap — to speak sharply
  2. fall — to drop
  3. snap — to click
  4. cold — not warm
  5. cold — an illness
  6. drill — a practice
  7. snap — to snap out of it
  8. foot — the bottom
  9. court — for sport
  10. wax — to grow
  11. foot — part of the body
  12. fall — the season
  13. hand — help
  14. hand — in cards
  15. court — of law
  16. drill — army training
  17. hand — part of the body
  18. wax — for sculpting
  19. court — of a king
  20. fall — to drop
  21. foot — a measure
  22. cold — the Cold War
  23. drill — the tool
  24. wax — in the ear

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