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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. My father caught me by the ________________.
  2. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  3. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  4. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  5. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. The goat rested comfortably on a soft bed of ________________.
  8. The ball is in your ________________.
  9. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  10. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  11. You don't have to ________________ at me like that.
  12. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  13. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.
  14. It always has to be a ________________ man with them.
  15. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  16. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  17. ________________ out of it! You haven't done a thing all week.
  18. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  19. A drowning man will clutch at a ________________.
  20. He was locked up in a ________________.
  21. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  22. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  23. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  24. When I ________________ my fingers, you'll wake up.

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

Answer key

  1. arm — part of the body
  2. court — of law
  3. row — a line
  4. degree — from a university
  5. arm — part of the body
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. straw — dry grass
  8. court — for sport
  9. court — of a king
  10. wax — for sculpting
  11. snap — to speak sharply
  12. arm — a part of something
  13. row — to paddle
  14. straw — a straw man
  15. row — a quarrel
  16. cell — in biology
  17. snap — to snap out of it
  18. degree — temperature
  19. straw — to clutch at straws
  20. cell — in a prison
  21. degree — an amount
  22. cell — a phone
  23. wax — to grow
  24. snap — to click

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