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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: shower · sharp · cell · chair · bat · pop · dip · wax

  1. He's taking a ________________ right now.
  2. It's one o'clock ________________.
  3. Professor Sir Peter Hirsch formerly held the ________________.
  4. I put the bag on or beside the ________________.
  5. Oh no! I wasn't paying attention and left my ________________ phone in the restaurant!
  6. We took cover from the thunder ________________.
  7. James Baker serves as an Honorary Co-________________ for the World Justice Project.
  8. The ________________ was so hot, it burned my tongue.
  9. Tom didn't even ________________ an eye.
  10. This knife is not ________________ enough.
  11. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  12. He was locked up in a ________________.
  13. The ________________ hangs upside down in the cave.
  14. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  15. I like to ________________ a cookie in coffee.
  16. Each ________________ is a complete and highly sophisticated living world in its own right.
  17. He's quite ________________, isn't he?
  18. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  19. The dagger's metal was presumably from the same meteor ________________.
  20. The ________________ was stolen yesterday, along with the balls.
  21. You don't need to ________________ round.
  22. We're almost out of ________________.
  23. They watched the sun ________________ below the horizon.
  24. Michael Jackson and Prince changed the history of ________________ music.

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

Answer key

  1. shower — to wash
  2. sharp — exactly
  3. chair — a professorship
  4. chair — to sit on
  5. cell — a phone
  6. shower — rain
  7. chair — a leader
  8. dip — a sauce
  9. bat — in an idiom
  10. sharp — with an edge
  11. wax — to grow
  12. cell — in a prison
  13. bat — the animal
  14. wax — for sculpting
  15. dip — to dunk
  16. cell — in biology
  17. sharp — clever
  18. wax — in the ear
  19. shower — a meteor shower
  20. bat — for baseball
  21. pop — to visit
  22. pop — soda
  23. dip — to sink
  24. pop — music

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