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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. It's one o'clock ________________.
  2. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  5. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  6. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  7. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  8. The King held a masked ________________.
  9. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  10. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  11. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  12. I was having a ________________ recording these guys.
  13. The band played a military ________________ at the parade.
  14. The information is stored in a ________________ on my computer.
  15. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  16. We walked down the narrow path in single ________________.
  17. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  18. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  19. His birthday is in either ________________ or April.
  20. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  21. We will have lived in Kyoto for eight years next ________________.
  22. He rubbed the rust off with a ________________.
  23. The kitten curled into a ________________.
  24. This knife is not ________________ enough.

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

Answer key

  1. sharp — exactly
  2. capital — money
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. hand — in cards
  5. hand — help
  6. capital — a city
  7. wax — in the ear
  8. ball — a dance
  9. track — to keep track
  10. wax — to grow
  11. track — a song
  12. ball — a great time
  13. march — music
  14. file — a document
  15. sharp — clever
  16. file — a line of people
  17. track — a path
  18. wax — for sculpting
  19. march — the month
  20. capital — a big letter
  21. march — the month
  22. file — a tool
  23. ball — a round shape
  24. sharp — with an edge

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