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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 120 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. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  2. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  3. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  4. I need a ________________ to install the towel rack.
  5. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  6. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  7. ________________ is common in the lakes of Sweden.
  8. He was locked up in a ________________.
  9. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  10. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  11. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  12. We had a fire ________________ at school today.
  13. The water is too ________________.
  14. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  15. The birds use the scarecrow as a ________________.
  16. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  17. The soldiers did ________________ on the parade ground every morning.
  18. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  19. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  20. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  21. The owl hooted softly from its ________________.
  22. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  23. It's one o'clock ________________.
  24. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.

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

Answer key

  1. straw — a straw man
  2. wax — in the ear
  3. straw — dry grass
  4. drill — the tool
  5. straw — to clutch at straws
  6. sharp — with an edge
  7. perch — the fish
  8. cell — in a prison
  9. wax — to grow
  10. cell — a phone
  11. cold — an illness
  12. drill — a practice
  13. cold — not warm
  14. sharp — clever
  15. perch — for a bird
  16. wax — for sculpting
  17. drill — army training
  18. cold — the Cold War
  19. cell — in biology
  20. wind — moving air
  21. perch — for a bird
  22. wind — to turn a key
  23. sharp — exactly
  24. wind — moving air

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