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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 had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  2. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  5. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  6. Let us try to swim against the ________________.
  7. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  8. In jazz, ________________ was gradually being replaced by bebop.
  9. Wood does not conduct electric ________________.
  10. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  11. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  12. The King held a masked ________________.
  13. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  14. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  15. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  16. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  17. The coach helped Matthew straighten out his golf ________________, improving his game.
  18. David sat on the ________________.
  19. It's one o'clock ________________.
  20. Here is a list of ________________ job openings.
  21. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  22. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  23. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  24. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.

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

Answer key

  1. kid — child
  2. sharp — clever
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. spring — a coil
  5. hand — in cards
  6. current — of water
  7. wax — for sculpting
  8. swing — music
  9. current — electric
  10. ball — a great time
  11. spring — of water
  12. ball — a dance
  13. spring — the season
  14. wax — in the ear
  15. wax — to grow
  16. sharp — with an edge
  17. swing — in golf
  18. swing — to play on
  19. sharp — exactly
  20. current — happening now
  21. ball — a round shape
  22. kid — to tease
  23. hand — help
  24. kid — young goat (kid gloves)

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