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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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Word bank
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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: deal · mine · hand · roll · shower · spring · court · wax

  1. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. I met an old friend of ________________ the other day.
  3. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  4. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  5. He was blown up by a land ________________.
  6. Part of that ________________ required him to leave the singing group.
  7. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  8. She's sitting on a gold ________________.
  9. The ball is in your ________________.
  10. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  11. We need to ________________ with this problem right now.
  12. Don't make such a big ________________ out of small things.
  13. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  14. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  15. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  16. The teacher called the ________________ to see who was absent.
  17. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  18. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  19. We're on a ________________ here.
  20. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  21. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  22. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  23. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  24. Grandma has made a Swiss ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. mine — belonging to me
  3. hand — part of the body
  4. wax — in the ear
  5. mine — an explosive
  6. deal — an agreement
  7. shower — rain
  8. mine — for digging
  9. court — for sport
  10. spring — of water
  11. deal — to handle
  12. deal — a big deal
  13. wax — for sculpting
  14. wax — to grow
  15. court — of a king
  16. roll — a list
  17. court — of law
  18. hand — help
  19. roll — on a roll
  20. shower — a meteor shower
  21. spring — a coil
  22. hand — in cards
  23. spring — the season
  24. roll — a cake

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