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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 felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  3. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  4. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  5. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  6. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  9. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  10. Fill up this ________________ with water.
  11. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  14. The water is too ________________.
  15. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  16. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  17. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  18. He is an ace ________________.
  19. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  20. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  21. The ________________ will go to the well once too often.
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  24. The moon will ________________ and wane.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. spring — a coil
  3. tear — from crying
  4. tear — from crying
  5. wax — in the ear
  6. spring — the season
  7. tear — to rip
  8. cold — the Cold War
  9. spring — of water
  10. pitcher — a jug
  11. capital — a big letter
  12. chest — a box
  13. court — of a king
  14. cold — not warm
  15. chest — of your body
  16. capital — money
  17. wax — for sculpting
  18. pitcher — in baseball
  19. cold — an illness
  20. court — of law
  21. pitcher — a jug
  22. court — for sport
  23. capital — a city
  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