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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 lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. I'd like to play a game of ________________.
  4. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  5. Our bank has a ________________ near the station.
  6. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  7. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  8. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. Biology is a ________________ of science.
  11. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  12. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  13. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  14. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  15. He chopped down the ________________ with an ax.
  16. The president vowed to ________________ the mutiny.
  17. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  18. Cut the butternut ________________ into one-inch cubes.
  19. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  20. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  21. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  22. The ball is in your ________________.
  23. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  24. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — a box
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. squash — the sport
  4. wind — moving air
  5. branch — of a bank
  6. chest — of your body
  7. wind — moving air
  8. wax — to grow
  9. court — of a king
  10. branch — a division
  11. court — of law
  12. wind — to turn a key
  13. tear — from crying
  14. wax — for sculpting
  15. branch — of a tree
  16. squash — to crush
  17. tear — from crying
  18. squash — the vegetable
  19. file — a document
  20. chest — of your body
  21. file — a tool
  22. court — for sport
  23. tear — to rip
  24. file — a line of people

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