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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. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  2. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  3. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  4. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  5. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  6. Champaud competed in the parallel bars, ________________, and pommel horse events.
  7. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  8. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  9. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.
  10. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  11. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  12. The ceiling is a plaster ________________ painted with stars.
  13. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  14. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  15. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  16. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  17. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  18. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  19. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  20. Lukas kept the diamonds in a locked ________________.
  21. The water is too ________________.
  22. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.
  23. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  24. I had a ________________ with my boss today.

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

Answer key

  1. chest — of your body
  2. wax — to grow
  3. march — music
  4. snap — to speak sharply
  5. wax — for sculpting
  6. vault — in gymnastics
  7. race — a contest
  8. race — the arms race
  9. snap — to click
  10. chest — of your body
  11. march — the month
  12. vault — an arched ceiling
  13. wax — in the ear
  14. march — the month
  15. race — humankind
  16. row — to paddle
  17. snap — to snap out of it
  18. cold — an illness
  19. row — a line
  20. vault — a safe
  21. cold — not warm
  22. chest — a box
  23. cold — the Cold War
  24. row — a quarrel

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