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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: wind · net · wax · foot · arm · court · capital · chest

  1. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  2. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  3. The strong ________________ blew his hat off.
  4. She laid her head on my ________________ so she could listen to my heartbeat.
  5. She sat on the ________________ of the sofa.
  6. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  7. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  8. I'd give my right ________________ to be ambidextrous.
  9. He sold his goods at a loss to ________________ up his business.
  10. The ball is in your ________________.
  11. A second agreement was made due to the large amount of available ________________.
  12. The ________________ found him guilty of stealing money.
  13. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  14. Heather can grow to a ________________ or so tall.
  15. It was raining hard, and to make things worse, the ________________ was beginning to rise.
  16. The beginning of a sentence starts with a ________________ letter.
  17. I felt an uncomfortable tightness in my ________________.
  18. The newcomer sat down at the ________________ of the table.
  19. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  20. My father caught me by the ________________.
  21. I have a corn on my right ________________.
  22. Beijing is the ________________ of China.
  23. When a clown is made king, the ________________ becomes a circus.
  24. The lid of the ________________ creaked open.

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

Answer key

  1. net — after costs
  2. wax — for sculpting
  3. wind — moving air
  4. chest — of your body
  5. arm — a part of something
  6. wax — in the ear
  7. net — in sport
  8. arm — part of the body
  9. wind — to turn a key
  10. court — for sport
  11. capital — money
  12. court — of law
  13. net — for catching
  14. foot — a measure
  15. wind — moving air
  16. capital — a big letter
  17. chest — of your body
  18. foot — the bottom
  19. wax — to grow
  20. arm — part of the body
  21. foot — part of the body
  22. capital — a city
  23. court — of a king
  24. chest — a box

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