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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. When are we going to ________________?
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. Nothing provides more peace of mind than a ________________ decision.
  4. I'll stand ________________ for what I deserve.
  5. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  6. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  7. He spent years learning his ________________ as a carpenter.
  8. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  9. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  10. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  13. Small ________________ should stay in the harbor during the storm.
  14. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  15. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.
  16. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  17. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  18. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  19. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  20. She works as an advertiser at a New Jersey ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. Flower arranging is a traditional ________________ in Japan.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. He was blown up by a land ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — to come down
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. firm — decided
  4. firm — steady
  5. land — ground
  6. mine — belonging to me
  7. craft — a skill
  8. content — the amount
  9. content — happy
  10. wax — to grow
  11. cold — an illness
  12. field — a subject
  13. craft — boats
  14. land — a country
  15. field — for sport
  16. wax — for sculpting
  17. content — videos and posts
  18. mine — for digging
  19. field — farmland
  20. firm — a company
  21. cold — not warm
  22. craft — a handicraft
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. mine — an explosive

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

Make a worksheet (0 words)

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