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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 116 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: kid · land · spell · spring · tear · lean · fan · wax

  1. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  2. When are we going to ________________?
  3. The hotel is built around a mineral ________________.
  4. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  5. Vegetables slowly ________________ towards the light.
  6. Can you turn the ________________ on?
  7. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  8. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  9. He is as ________________ as a wolf.
  10. The flowers bloom in the ________________.
  11. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  12. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  13. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  14. How do you ________________ your surname?
  15. Don't ________________ against the wall. It's just been painted.
  16. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  17. I am not a ________________ of shrimp.
  18. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  19. There's a broken ________________ in the bed.
  20. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  21. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  22. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  23. Are you a huge ________________ of trains?
  24. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.

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

Answer key

  1. land — ground
  2. land — to come down
  3. spring — of water
  4. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  5. lean — to bend
  6. fan — to cool the air
  7. tear — from crying
  8. wax — for sculpting
  9. lean — thin
  10. spring — the season
  11. wax — to grow
  12. kid — to tease
  13. wax — in the ear
  14. spell — letters
  15. lean — to rest against
  16. tear — to rip
  17. fan — a supporter
  18. tear — from crying
  19. spring — a coil
  20. kid — child
  21. land — a country
  22. spell — a short time
  23. fan — a supporter
  24. spell — magic

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