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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. Do not ________________ roses in the fall.
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  4. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  5. The water is too ________________.
  6. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  7. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  8. My father caught me by the ________________.
  9. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  10. I cannot ________________ this tree. It's too high.
  11. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  12. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  13. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  14. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  15. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  16. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  17. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  18. That was a fun ________________.
  19. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  20. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  21. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  22. When are we going to ________________?
  23. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  24. A ________________ is just a dried plum.

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

Answer key

  1. prune — to trim
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. arm — a part of something
  4. land — a country
  5. cold — not warm
  6. cold — an illness
  7. straw — a straw man
  8. arm — part of the body
  9. wax — to grow
  10. prune — to trim
  11. straw — to clutch at straws
  12. land — ground
  13. straw — dry grass
  14. wax — for sculpting
  15. game — wild animals
  16. perch — for a bird
  17. cold — the Cold War
  18. game — a match
  19. perch — for a bird
  20. arm — part of the body
  21. game — a kind of play
  22. land — to come down
  23. perch — the fish
  24. prune — the fruit

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