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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. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  3. We're almost out of ________________.
  4. You don't need to ________________ round.
  5. We're on a ________________ here.
  6. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  7. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  8. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  9. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  10. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  11. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  12. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  13. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  14. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.
  15. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  16. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  17. False peace will not ________________.
  18. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  19. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.
  20. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  21. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  22. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  23. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  24. We took cover from the thunder ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. wax — for sculpting
  3. pop — soda
  4. pop — to visit
  5. roll — on a roll
  6. last — finally
  7. file — a line of people
  8. chest — of your body
  9. shower — a meteor shower
  10. roll — a list
  11. club — for dancing
  12. chest — a box
  13. shower — to wash
  14. pop — music
  15. file — a document
  16. file — a tool
  17. last — to go on
  18. club — for golf
  19. roll — a cake
  20. last — final
  21. club — a group
  22. wax — to grow
  23. wax — in the ear
  24. shower — rain

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