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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 116 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. Many happy returns to all who ________________ the name of a flower!
  2. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  3. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  4. When are we going to ________________?
  5. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  6. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  7. The ball is in your ________________.
  8. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  9. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  10. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  11. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  12. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  13. The little girl was crying for the teddy ________________.
  14. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  15. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  16. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  17. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  18. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  19. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  20. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  21. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  22. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  23. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  24. A black ________________ roamed the forest.

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

Answer key

  1. bear — to put up with
  2. file — a line of people
  3. wax — to grow
  4. land — to come down
  5. wax — in the ear
  6. court — of a king
  7. court — for sport
  8. content — happy
  9. kid — to tease
  10. hand — part of the body
  11. land — ground
  12. hand — help
  13. bear — the animal
  14. court — of law
  15. file — a tool
  16. kid — child
  17. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  18. content — the amount
  19. hand — in cards
  20. land — a country
  21. wax — for sculpting
  22. file — a document
  23. content — videos and posts
  24. bear — the animal

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