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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. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. The water is too ________________.
  4. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  5. When are we going to ________________?
  6. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  7. The ________________ went through the wall.
  8. My father caught me by the ________________.
  9. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  10. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  11. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  12. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  13. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  14. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  15. She broke her ________________ while washing the dishes.
  16. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  17. He drove in a ________________ with his hammer.
  18. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  21. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  22. He is an ace ________________.
  23. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  24. The moon will ________________ and wane.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. spring — a coil
  3. cold — not warm
  4. wax — for sculpting
  5. land — to come down
  6. spring — of water
  7. nail — for a hammer
  8. arm — part of the body
  9. spring — the season
  10. arm — part of the body
  11. net — for catching
  12. net — in sport
  13. cold — the Cold War
  14. net — after costs
  15. nail — on a finger
  16. wax — in the ear
  17. nail — for a hammer
  18. land — a country
  19. cold — an illness
  20. pitcher — a jug
  21. arm — a part of something
  22. pitcher — in baseball
  23. pitcher — a jug
  24. wax — to grow

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