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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. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  2. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  3. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  4. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  5. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  6. The elephant has a huge ________________.
  7. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  8. It's best to wear a ________________ on your head during the cold Moscow winters.
  9. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  10. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  11. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  12. The polar ice ________________ is melting.
  13. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  14. I've got the luggage in my ________________.
  15. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  16. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  17. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  18. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. Can you put the ________________ back on the pen?
  21. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  22. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  23. The tree's ________________ was scarred by lightning strikes.
  24. We ________________ up on opposing sides.

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

Answer key

  1. wax — in the ear
  2. chest — of your body
  3. mine — belonging to me
  4. chest — of your body
  5. shower — to wash
  6. trunk — of an elephant
  7. wound — an injury
  8. cap — a hat
  9. straw — a straw man
  10. shower — rain
  11. wound — an injury
  12. cap — of ice
  13. mine — for digging
  14. trunk — of a car
  15. shower — a meteor shower
  16. wax — to grow
  17. chest — a box
  18. straw — dry grass
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. cap — a lid
  21. wax — for sculpting
  22. mine — an explosive
  23. trunk — of a tree
  24. wound — past of 'wind'

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